All the Mighty Johnsons
by arina73
Summary: One night changed her whole life. Little did she know that was only the beginning. Slow-going. Sorry about editing. Will be a specific pairing soon-ish... Can you guess? T for now. Quite AU in some ways.
1. Chapter 1: Oh My

**Holy moly! Do I love this show! Idea popped into my head and couldn't get it out. Probably gonna be annoying with updating. Sorry for people reading my other stories… definitely do not mean to be cruel or mean or anything… I 'oxox' you all! On we go! (Also sorry about editing…)**

**Chapter One – Oh My**

"… Oh my God

I've been beaten in the game of love

I've had two years in heaven but five weeks in hell

Where do I go now

So I fall to my knees

Praying to God

'Oh help me please'…"

– Gin Wigmore

* * *

"Halie baby…"

'Go away. Go away. Go away.'

"Mahalia. Love…" a new voice spoke softly through the door.

"Mum." Halie inhaled a deep breath, peeling herself off the floor of her dark room and crawling towards the door. "Mum…" she held her hand on the locked door knob, whimpering but trying to speak loud enough for the older woman to hear, "I just want you. Tell him to go."

"Honey," she heard him began to protest.

"Mum" Halie cut him off.

"John I think you had better…"

"No." He refused.

Halie wished that he would stop being so stubborn. He had done more than enough he had called her Mum now he had to leave.

"Please, just until we can figure out what's what. I'll call soon as." Her mother pressed on the other side of the door.

There was a long silence, Halie detected the sound of shuffling feet "Fine" he sighed "Hales I love you darling."

Halie let go of the door knob, slapping one hand over her mouth to keep from screeching and raking the fingers of her other through her long blonde hair. She could practically see his warm brown eyes and sweet face under his shaggy dark hair… it was too much.

"Ok sweetheart he's gone…" her mother tapped lightly on the door, she sounded closer to the ground now too.

"Mummy…" Halie sobbed, immediately opening and falling into the comfort of her kneeling mother's grasp.

"Oh, oh, oh hun. Mummy's here" she stroked Halie's hair, patiently calming her daughter down and shifting to sit them both more comfortably in the doorway. "What wrong my baby."

"You're going to hate me."

"That could never happen…"

Halie shook her head, clinging desperately to her mother's jumper "You'll be so disappointed… I should have known better…"

"Mahalia Khoa…" Halie felt her mum try to pull away, her tone more severe.

"You were the same age too when…"

There was a heavy breath of pausing, before the older women ripped herself out of her daughter's arms and stood up to start angrily pacing in front of the weeping girl.

Halie could not bring herself to lift her light brown gaze.

"Halie how could you be so stupid?"

"I know."

"I mean what about John?"

"I know."

"Halie you're only just eighteen for Christ's sake!"

"I know."

"God damn it! Will you look at me when I'm talking to you?" Halie tried to lift her shameful head but it was impossible to look up from the worn carpet of her dingy flat.

"I just can't Mum."

There was huffed exhale, followed by Halie seeing her mother move to kneel on the floor beside her again. "Oh Halie Bali …" her mother muttered, wrapping a comforting arm around Halie's defeated shoulders. "This is not what I wanted for you…"

"Yes apparently having kid at eighteen was the worst possible thing in the world." Halie acerbically spat out, wiping her nose as she sniffed. She knew that it was unfair to snap at her mother, but she was a mess of bungled up emotions. Especially after everything her mum had done for her… it hadn't mattered that Halie had been her sister's newborn child. She had always been there… when Halie's biological mother had walked out, the woman that Halie had called and known as her mother all her life, even only at age eighteen, had taken her in.

"Come on Halie." Her mum's browned haired head nudged against Halie's blonde head gently "You know that's not what I meant… I love you, I wouldn't give you up for anything. It's just…" she shrugged "It's just a lot to deal with… unless…"

"Unless what?" Halie's light eyes shifted to meet her mother's deep blue ones.

"Ah, unless. You don't want to deal with it…" her mother trailed off though by her grim expression Halie could tell what she was alluding to.

"I don't want to deal with it. But I can't not deal with it." Halie's brow furrowed as she worked out what she was trying to say "I mean I thought about getting rid of… but I just can't…"

"And John…" her mother asked uncertainly.

"Oh god…" Halie swallowed back the urge to be sick, her gaze falling back down to the carpet.

She could sense her mother attempting to work out what to say "Have you ever talked about the possibility of a family?"

"Yeah…" Halie explained slowly "but way, way down the line. Never this soon…"

"Well you have been together for two years…" the lovely older woman began to rationalize "… in teen years that's…"

Halie could feel her lungs become heavy with guilt 'Better get it done and over with…' she thought to herself.

"But we've never done it." She stated quietly.

"Yeah… bu… but you been together for… wait?" she could hear the frown in her mother's voice as she started to figure it all out. "You've never?"

Halie shook her head. "Nope."

"But then…"

"My eighteenth birthday." Halie explained.

"And the guy?"

"No clue…" she mumbled, unable to keep the indignity out of her voice.

"But Halie, your friends were out with you…" her mother's hand moved to rest on her shoulder.

Halie sadly nodded her head, picking at the awful carpet with her fingers "They said I was completely gone, put me in a cab and sent me home… Whina said she tried calling but somewhere between when I got in the cab and talked to her the next morning something" Halie looked down at and patted her stomach "happened…"

"And you just found out?"

"Five weeks ago…"

"Five weeks Halie…"

"Yeah. I guess I was hoping that… I don't know. But it just hit me today and… I mean at least I could hide the tattoo but this…"

"Tattoo?"

"Oh yeah…" Halie bit her lip, she lift her shirt a little and turned away from her mother.

"Oh Halie…" the older blue eyed woman gasped. Halie knew why. Starting just below her right shoulder blade, an inch or two to the right of her spine the tip of what looked a like a drinking horn began, widening and following the curve of her ribs to come around her waist and ending at her side, just by her breast.

"I know you had a thing for Boromir but…" her mother mumbled nonchalantly.

"Mum!" Halie pulled down her shirt in irritation.

"I'm sorry love. I don't know what to say, my darling daughter who's been afraid of needles her whole life suddenly has a tattoo… and a baby…"

"Yeah."

"It's not so bad. I like those 'M's' and weird 'I's'… whoever did it was an awesome artist to finish in a night."

"I guess… still it hurt like a mother in the morning…"

"The baby though… we'll have to wait to see how that'll turn out… bank on that hurting too…"

"And John…"

"Well I think he's pretty set in his ways." Her mother prodded lightly with smile.

Halie laughed, her face still wet with tears, she leaned into her mother's embrace "I'm so happy you're here Mummy…"

"Me too love." She kissed Halie's forehead, her tone less light than a few moments ago "Me too…"

* * *

"Leif…"

"Leave him alone." She groaned into her pillow.

"He's so close. Look!"

Finally giving up on any hope of sleep, Halie turned her head to see her beautiful two year old son. Brown haired and blue eyed he was perfect.

Sitting up and moving to the edge of her bed she saw John had gotten Leif out his crib. The dark haired man was crouching on the floor before the boy, curling his fingers in an attempt to urge the chubby toddler to speak something other than 'Ma' or babbling a bunch of stuff that barely made sense.

The year that Leif had been born had been a rough one. Halie had told John everything and though she had fully expected him to leave, it had hurt much worse than anything she could have thought of… of course that was until she pushed a seven pound watermelon out of her body.

After Leif's first birthday he had started showing up again. In all honest Halie had been happy with her son, he was all that she needed to stay afloat. It was love at first sight, and with the help her of her friends and mostly her Mum they were managing. Halie was going to Uni for architecture and working at her Mum's clothing store. Her life had some balance…

When John began turning up it was nice. She had missed him, he had been such a huge part of her life, her best friend and when Halie saw him she was filled with that same guilt all over again. He deserved to be treated better than how she had treated him.

And that was how she got another pair of hands helping her with her son. He stayed over a lot, but still had his own place and was great with Leif.

Halie smiled as her son's face turned into one that was determined on nappy filling and not much else "I don't think you'll have any luck today." She scoffed moving to stand next to John.

She shifted away as John tried to lean against her legs a little.

"Whoa!" John exclaimed as he caught his footing.

"Sorry…" Halie winced, going to scoop up her son, casting a brief look back at a slightly wounded looking John. "What were you trying to get him to say?"

"What do you think?" he asked as though it was obvious, grunting as he stood up straight.

"Well he's a bit young for the whole periodic table, so I'm just gonna say Hydrogen…"

"Nah."

"Hellium then?" she teased over her shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her small form, bending to lean his lean against her shoulder

"Something starting with D…" he kissed her skin "A…"

Her back stiffened, she could see where he was going… and she knew what she should have wanted to say. She should have wanted to encourage this wonderful man, who she did love but instead she what she really wanted to do was stop him.

She loved him, but in her heart, in her gut it all felt so wrong. It wasn't enough.

Even though a part of her was dreading what it would mean, especially now after they had rebuilt so much of what they had lost Halie could not do it anymore.

It wasn't fair to him it wasn't right for them, he still deserved more.

"I think we need to talk…"

"About?" he stopped kissing her skin, a vein of worry in his voice.

But she was a coward and what she did say was still bad, in relative terms "About what he should call you."

"What do you mean?" he pulled away from her, keeping his arms around her, forcing her to tilt her head back to look up at him.

"I mean…" she stumbled over her words, taking in the hurt in his brown eyes "I just… maybe…" she shrugged, stepping out of his increasingly lax grip.

"What you want me to be Uncle John or something?"

"I want…" Halie spoke over the sound of Leif's squeal. "I just want you to be yourself."

"And myself is not his father. Is that right?" he bit out.

"I didn't mean like…"

"Then what did you mean Mahalia?"

'Great look at him…' Halie wanted to shrink away, she felt so awful she had hurt him all over again.

"I just meant… what if…" she trailed off, hoping that he would accept that her concern over his presence in her son's life was the reason for her reservations.

"I won't be leaving if that's what's bothering you" he stated plainly his hands on his hips. "But don't think that's all that's bothering you Hales."

"How did you…?" she frown in confusion.

"I've known you long enough to know what your faces mean."

"Right…" she nodded, turning her head to her son who was giggling and amusing himself with her blonde hair "I guess I want him to know. You know? And decide. Like I did… even if he sees you as 'Dad'… I didn't call my Mum 'Mum' until I was eight. "

She lifted her light brown eyes to stare at John, who silently seemed to be in deep contemplation. Biting the inside of her cheek, she waited nervously.

"I guess…" he looked down at his bare feet, before going on with some reluctance in his tone and moving towards her "I guess that makes sense."

Halie felt a wave of relief crash over her. She smiled up at him as he took her into his arms and kissed her lips.

A few months before her twenty-first birthday, ignoring the itch under her tattoo she made herself give in… somewhat confident 'I can deal with this.'

* * *

**Hope you like it so far. Like I said before if you've read my other stories you know I mean 'slow-going' when I say it.**

**Where let me know where you think I might going! (I already know where I wanna go, but it would still be interesting to hear your thoughts). **


	2. Chapter 2: 99 Problems

**Whoa! So observant! Very oddly proud of the dot connecting at this moment :) Hope everyone's doing all right! I apologize for the editing/ chunky flow stuff in advance : S Now let's keep going!**

**Chapter Two – 99 Problems**

"… If you having girl problems

I feel bad for you son

I got 99 problems

But a bitch ain't one…"

– Jay-Z

* * *

"Ty you're such a little bitch…"

"Thanks for that Anders…"

"It's not just me. Little Odin here thinks it too. Right?" Anders nudged his little brother with his elbow. They were standing in the middle of a sunlit park, Olaf was meant to be there too but had wandered off probably to get his lunchtime high somewhere.

"Careful who you call 'little', dwarf…"

"Woo, touch-y…" Anders scoffed up at his brother.

"I don't think you're a bitch Ty…"

"Thanks Axl…"

"A bit creepy but not a bitch."

"Thanks Axl."

"Yes, thanks Axl…" Anders piped in, before turning to address Ty "she's never gonna want you…"

"That's it I'm leaving…" Ty huffed putting up his hands before beginning to walk away from his brothers.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" Anders called the dark haired man back, reaching for his shoulder "No need to get so jumpy bro. Despite what you might think of me. I'm trying to help you…" the light-haired god smiled as he went on "… even if you're not a God anymore you're still my brother. And seeing you be so pathetic is not as fun as it used to be…"

Though he had stopped, Ty nudged off Anders hand, rolling his eyes and shaking his head at his shorter brother "Well when you put it like that…"

"What he means is that maybe you should think of a different approach with the whole Dawn thing…" Axl clarified, with a shrug of his shoulders.

"The Dawn thing…" Ty repeated.

"Take it from me the whole stalking, pining and obsessing thing works for some girls…" Anders grinned "but those girls typically live in a padded cell… or eat their own hair…"

"What are you saying?"

"Look over there." Anders nodded his light haired head towards the playground a few metres away.

"At those kids?" Ty asked.

"Yeah."

"And I'm the creepy one?" Ty went on questioning.

"Just look you asshole." Anders sighed, turning to face the milling field of kids.

"Kay, what am I looking at?"

"There" Anders jerked his chin towards a brown haired boy, that was intently focused on a little red haired girl on the other side of the playground "That little boy has been following around that girl for about the past fifteen minutes, helping her up when she trips and getting her the things she's pointed at…"

"And I'm the creepy one?" Ty reiterated.

"Just focus…"

"Kay you fucking pedo." Ty expression remained sour as he took in the sight Anders was pointing to "Aw… Yes, I see that's sweet…" he dismissively acknowledged the young boy's affectionate behaviour.

"No." Anders smacked Ty's back harder than he needed to, earning him a scowl from his once icy brother "… it would be sweet if the girl didn't keep ignoring what he got her and didn't literally recoil when he touched her…" Anders paused, eying Ty expectantly "Are you catching my drift?" met with yet more silence Anders sighed when Ty continued to stare at him blankly "It's not playing hard to get, it's actual disgust. The little fucker can't take a hint…"

"And…" Ty promoted.

"And you, my mortal brother, are that little fucker."

"No… Yeah. I mean bu…" Ty's frown deepened as he carried on looking in the direction of the children "what's grandpa doing?"

"What?" Anders turned to face the playground again. "What the hell?"

"That's not good." Axl muttered, as their grandfather crouched to face the little boy that had only just been their example.

"Go stop him." Anders gestured at the odd scene.

"You go stop him." Ty replied.

"I have to go back to work." The shorter brother spoke as he started walking away quickly.

"Anders!" Ty called in vain.

"Bye! Stop being a creep." Anders brushed off over his shoulder as he moved towards the exit of the park.

Axl's uncomfortable blue gaze drifted over to their Grandfather who was now holding the boy's hands "Yeah…" he checked his wrist watch "I gotta go too."

"Axl don't..." Ty tired though Axl carried on backing away as well.

"See you mate!"

"Axl!" Ty groaned watching Axl shrug as though he were helpless being pulled away "Fuck me…" he mumbled pivoting to see Olaf squinting and waving his fingers at the boy.

With a brief intake of breath, Ty started across the small distance to the playground.

"How cool…" Olaf spoke as his eyes stuck to the boy.

"Olaf…" Ty voiced awkwardly interrupting whatever conversation his grandfather was having with this boy.

"Ty." Olaf stated, his gaze unwavering from the brown haired boy "This child…"

"Is not ours…" Ty nervously looked around, checking to see if any angry parent was closing in on them "so we shouldn't be…"

"Nah…" Olaf shook his head, his lazy gaze lifting to look at Ty. "He's lost."

"He's lost?" Ty asked doubtfully, looking at the boy "Are you…" he paused, struck by an odd familiarity "Are you lost?" he finished asking slowly, his brow furrowed in confusion.

"He's deaf Tyrone." Olaf stretched his arms over his bald head as he stood up straight.

"Deaf?"

"I wasn't just having some sort of weird hand fit…" Olaf shook his head, smiling and signing something to the boy, who clearly found whatever Olaf had said funny.

"When did you learn sign language?"

"Ninety-three years of life…" Olaf shrugged "you pick things up."

"Right…"

"So should we find its parents…" Ty uneasily eyed the little blue-eyed boy.

"_His _parents… well, grandmother actually and he doesn't know where she is. He followed that girl" Olaf nodded at the redheaded girl, "and has no idea where he came from…"

"Fantastic grandpa..." Ty's gaze wandered around the edge of the playground again.

"Maybe…"

"What?" Ty looked back to his grandfather.

"I wasn't talking to you…" Olaf said to Ty, while signing with the boy. It wasn't hard to imagine why the children in the playground were giving the boy so much space. When he signed the boy made a bunch of noises, probably not the most appealing playmate for other children. "Oh…" Olaf nodded at the boy, adding "He says his mum works very close by."

"And?"

"We could…"

"No." The darkly dressed Johnson's eyes widened, as he went on in a hushed tone "No way Olaf! We are not kidnapping a child from the park."

"It's not technically kidnapping…" Olaf put forward languidly.

Now considerably irritated, Ty retorted with some bitterness "Oh ok. Then what exactly is it?"

"No need to get excited Ty," the older man raised his arms in an attempt to relax his tense grandson.

"Does he know her number?" Ty asked eager to get this whole situation dealt with quickly.

"Who's?"

"His mum's."

"Oh…" Olaf began signing and speaking out loud to the boy "Do you know your mum's phone number?"

The boy shook his head, his blue eyes apologetically moving between the two men as he carried on signing and making his accompanying noises.

"He forgot it… he just learned it a few weeks ago" Olaf translated for Ty. "Congratulations…"

"What?" Ty asked again becoming increasingly annoyed by his grandfather.

"Not you… him" Olaf gestured to the boy "He just turned five… last month I think…"

"Good for him…" Ty gave the boy a tight smile, speaking out of the side of his mouth to Olaf "We should probably shove off grandpa."

"It hardly seems right to abandon a lost child."

"He's not your kid! Right now we look like pervy men standing around a playground, all we need is our hands shoved in our pockets…" Ty explained trying desperately not to draw any unwanted attention.

Olaf leaned back a little to observe his grandson, looking down at the dark haired man's trousers then back up at him, waiting calmly.

When Ty followed his grandpa's gaze he saw that he had his hands in his jeans pockets "Damn it!" he pulled them out quickly as though something had suddenly bitten his fingers.

"I don't see what you're so worried about Tyrone," Olaf lifted his hands gesturing between them "we're harmless and an act of random of kindness never hurt anyone."

"An act of random kindness?"

The boy made noises drawing back the men's focus, as he signed something. Ty shook off the peculiar feeling he had seen him somewhere before.

"See! He wants us to help." Olaf grinned triumphantly. "Man, he's a brilliant lip reader…" the bald man smiled at the boy "You're welcome…" he replied to what the boy signed.

"Fuck off…" Ty mumbled out in frustration under his breath, letting his dark-haired head loll back in dismay. "Why grandpa? Why do you do this weird shit?"

"Weird shit?"

"Can we please just go?" Ty practically begged, bring his head back to its normal position.

"Ah…" Olaf hummed, his focus now out towards one of the small hills bordering the edge of the park. Slowly he lifted his hand to point at some spot of flowing bright colours rushing towards them. Before long the blur of flowing colours seemed to collapse in a heap around the little boy.

"Oh thank god! Thank god!" The heap dressed in magenta and blue was evidently a very out of breath, but relieved woman. "Leif you scared me" she signed and spoke to the boy when she pulled away from his little frame.

The little boy called Leif signed frantically to the woman, who smiled widely and prodded his shoulder proudly with a playfully knowing expression.

"So this must be…" Ty trailed off when he saw how relatively young the middle aged woman looked.

Seeming to understand the woman left her bags where she had dropped them at her feet and groaning a bit as she stood up "Aw, get that all the time, but yes I'm Grandma…" the woman signed as she spoke. "I saw you signing with him" she smiled warmly at Olaf. "Thanks for keeping him company I suppose… Nadine" she held out her hand.

"Olaf… and that's Ty" the bald god shook her hand, frowning when he did.

"Oh!" The woman quickly pulled back her arm, wiping her hand on her bright skirt "Sorry…" she winced at Olaf, who was examining the palm of his hand. "I freaked out when I woke up and your" she stared pointedly down at Leif "apple juice spilled all over me…" she signed, lightheartedly nipping the boy's nose with her fingers when she finished.

"Are you yelling at him or something?" Ty nodded at the woman's fast moving fingers.

"Oh no… this is to keep him in the conversation, my daughter got me into the habit… I mean I wouldn't much like being excluded from a conversation happening right in front of my face…" she looked to her grandson now "right?" She waited for the boy to acknowledge her before going to Ty "Why would I be yelling at him?"

"Because… you know… he ran away from you…" Ty remarked.

"Nah." The woman nudged her grandson with her leg "I fell asleep again and it wasn't really running away… he's a little Romeo. I should have known better with this lady-killer…" she shifted her eyes to speak to Leif again "though I think your Mum might skin me, love…"

"You are really being cool about the whole strangers near you grandson thing…"

"Ah…" the woman looked between the three males, signing she talked "I guess I am. But you guys aren't perves are you? I mean…" her blue gaze travelled over the two Johnsons "I'm usually pretty spot on about these things, plus I don't think weirdos would point out the fact that I wasn't worried about them being weirdos…"

"Ah huh…" Ty nodded, his expression showing clearly that he was unsure of how exactly to respond.

Leif made a sound that was the closest to a full word as he signed "Ann-ma" was obviously meant to be 'Grandma'.

"Oh sweetheart, don't worry about it. We better go back to the shop, Mum will be wondering where we are…"

"Yeah he mentioned his Mum worked nearby" Olaf followed Nadine's lead, signing everything that he was speaking. Ty resisted the urge to groan at his grandfather constantly need to stick his nose in everywhere.

"Yeah in my store actually… she's just helping me out…" the proud mother beamed about daughter "she's an architect… well she will be, she got her Bachelors and is finishing her practicum and…" her mouth hung open as she seemed to realize that she was gushing.

"Right on…" Olaf nodded with seemingly sincere interest.

"Sorry" Nadine grimaced "I guess you get caught up, you know?"

"No worries. It all sounds really awesome and everything…" smiled his lips pulled tight as he slowly started inching away from the playground hoping that Olaf would take the hint and come along. "We'd better getting going. We've got that thing…Right Olaf?" Ty urged.

"Us too…" Nadine signed to the little boy, bending to gather up all of her things.

"Yeah huh…" Olaf absently replied to Ty, asking Nadine "What's the name of your store?"

"Oh, ah… it's called The Broken Closet…" the woman answered, a bit distracted by the process of picking up her dropped items.

"The Broken Closet?" Ty halted in his retreat at the odd name.

"Thrift and vintage stuff… clothes and all the rest…" Nadine elaborated, "Thanks" she smiled at Olaf, who had signed the exchange as she could not with her hands full. "Ok…" she gestured for Leif to getting moving.

The boy signed something at Olaf.

"You too little guy." Olaf smiled waving at the pair as they walked away.

Once the boy and woman were a fair distance away, Ty openly gaped at his elder relative "What the hell is wrong with you Grandpa?"

"You shouldn't fret so much Ty. It's not good for your blood pressure."

"My blood pressure would be fine if my whole family wasn't bat shit crazy." Ty watched utterly confused as Olaf sniffed the hand that he had used to greet Nadine with. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing." Olaf stated as he took another sniff.

"Really? 'Cause it looks like your sniffing your hand in the middle of a crowd playground…"

Olaf eyes moved off of his palm as he looked around at and took in his surroundings "It would appear that you are right Ty. We are indeed where you say we are." Olaf provided confirmation of their location as though Ty had asked for it.

Ty closed his eyes, taking in a deep inhale through his nose before asking "Can we go now or there some other kid you need to stalk or freak out?"

Briefly squinting at his palm again, Olaf smiled an easy smile at his grandson "Course we can go Ty."

"Choice…" Ty breathed, turning to leave and relieved to hear Olaf following him out of the strangeness in the park.

* * *

**Hey! Hope you're liking it so far. The next chapter will have sign language written into the dialogue, for now this chapter I hope it was ok. Once again sorry, sorry, sorry about the editing.**

**Also once again majorly proud. YAY! Story's gonna be slow going, build up and all of that good stuff that I pray people won't find too annoying (a little annoying's ok).**

**Let me know what you think. Feedback's the only to get better and feed my ego…**


	3. Chapter 3: Walk On

**Hi! Suppose that this is the story that I am most focused on at the moment… wonder when that'll change… Sigh. On we go! Sorry about the editing and the things I'm sure don't flow…**

**Anyway think got a pretty good key for signing (hopefully)… **

"**this talking**" = signing and talking

"this talking" = plain old talking

*this talking* = just sign language

**Mostly will be used in chapters focused on people who read sign language, will ****see ****how it works as we go on. ****Yay!...**

**Chapter Three – Walk On**

"… And love is not the easy thing

The only baggage you can bring

Is all that you can't leave behind…"

– U2

* * *

The sea shell wind chime Halie had made for her mum's thirtieth birthday tinkled from its place on the shop's door, "Halie?" the blond girl heard followed by sound of the door closing.

"I'm the back mum…" Halie heaved out a breath as she picked up a box filled with vintage shoes that had been approved by her mother.

She could hear her mum speaking in a hushed voice, Halie guessed it was to Leif as the shop was currently in its post-lunch lull and empty. The store was a small one, tucked away amongst the quaint shops of Mt. Eden. Painted a warm orangey red colour, with hard wood floors and the bright sun streaming through the display case windows Halie had always loved being inside this space. It was like home filled with eclectically collected plants, pieces of art and brightly patterned furniture. There was not much room amongst the racks of clothing, behind two glass cases that acted as counters for the register and two curtained fitting rooms near the back… but it was cozy.

There was the sound of stomping feet, and rapid racing as the five year old suddenly ran into the back room. He wrapped his arms around Halie's legs in greeting, before excited and animatedly beginning to describe the events of his lunch. Though Halie smiled and nodded along, she could tell by the content of the story her beautiful son was telling what her mother had been speaking to him about so secretly at the front of the shop.

"Asleep?" Halie questioned her son. With her hands full, she made sure to move her mouth very deliberately and be as expressive as she could be with her light brown eyes.

Clearly her mother heard her question as well, as the sound of a moan floated through the door leading to the back room. Unaware of his grandma's protest Leif went on explaining to his mother what had happened.

As he went on Halie's eyes widened. "Wait" she stated clearly to the young boy, her arms were getting sore and she walked out to the main part of the store, with Leif following close behind. Casting a weary glance at her mother, who was determinedly busying herself with looking through her purse and avoiding acknowledge Halie's presence in the room.

"**Ok**" Halie turned to face her son, after place the box on the counter by the cash register. Before doing anything else she leaned forward to kiss the boy's cheek, straighten up her short form to look at him properly "**So you ran away when Grandma fell asleep…**" she gesture for him to carry on, noting that her mum clearing her throat from by the other side of the store.

*She said to tell her where I was going, but I forget there was…* Leif stopped, his face turning pinkish colour as his blue eyes dropped to stare at his feet.

"There was a girl…" Halie's mum stated. Halie did not need to see her to know that there was, without doubt, a smile a on her face.

Waving her hands in front of him to draw his attention, Halie warmheartedly grinned at her son "**A girl?**" she asked, unable to hide how sweet she found her little five year old's romantic endeavours. Her son seemed intent on perfecting the whole wooing process and was always totally endearing.

'From the outside anyway' Halie ignored the fact that most of the girls were not as charmed by his efforts… 'at least he doesn't lose heart.'

*Yeah* the browned haired boy nodded *then this bald guy said…*

"This bald guy?" Halie's smile disappeared as she abruptly turned to face her mother. The older woman's blue eyes were filled with worry, as she had evidently been trying to keep Leif from revealing that particular fact. "What bald guy mother?" Halie pressed, she could not keep the fear that gripped her over the safety of her son at bay.

"Ahhh…"

"How long were you asleep? How far away did he run?" Halie ignored Leif's tugging at her arm, too concerned with answers to think of much else.

"Um… there may have been a moment where I thought he might really have been… lost… maybe…"

"Mum!" Halie disbelievingly shouted, as Leif pulled harder on her arm with more force. "What Leif?" Halie snapped, facing her son.

Leif frowned, letting of her arm. She had spoken more harshly than she had meant to, and her expression was likely an unpleasant one.

As she took in the hurt pout on her son's face, Halie's fear eased. "**I'm sorry baby.**"Guiltily she began explaining her reaction. "**You know that I love you…**" she signed, speaking aloud but much more softly as she went on. "**I love you more than anything in the world. Do you understand?**" Halie watched at her somber looking son.

*I understand Mum.* He replied with sincerity.

"**Good. So please no more running away and talking to strangers, I get so scared that I just...**" she sighed "**I don't know what I'd do without you, you nut.**" She smiled lightly ruffling his brown hair.

*Ok* he scuffed his shoes against the floor, as he reassured his mother.

"**You always do that…**"

*What?* Leif looked up, showing his confusion at his mother's statement.

"**Shuffle you're feet when you're fibbing.**" Halie chuckled along with Leif, who smiled at his mother's teasing.

Halie loved any sound out of her son's mouth, though she was sure that the sort of noises he made caused others to feel uncomfortable, she felt nothing but proud when he babbled as he signed. He was always trying, unembarrassed and unafraid to do so, even if others didn't react particularly well. Leif was such an intelligent boy. His vocabulary with sign language alone was already incredible and he was getting better and better at lip reading every day.

"**Tell her about your friend…**" Halie could see her mum sign out of the corner of her eye, urging for Leif to clear up what had exactly happened at the park.

"**The bald man's your friend now?**" Halie raised a concerned blond eyebrow at Leif.

*He could sign. When I got lost, he wanted to help me find Granny. But his grandson didn't want to…*

"**He wasn't his grandson Leif**" the older woman tsked, interrupting the boy's story as she moved nearer to the pair.

*Yes he was! He called the bald man…*

"**Olaf.**" Halie's mum corrected.

*Olaf… he called Olaf 'Grandpa'…* Leif looked between the two women.

"**Did he tell you?**" His grandma asked.

Slightly deflated the boy resigned *No. But he said it…*

"**It was probably just a joke…**" the woman offered to her grandson as explanation. "**If… if **um…" The dark haired woman paused as though trying to remember something, "**Ty! If Ty was his grandson, Olaf would be much older…**"

'Ty?' the blonde woman wondered, though waiting for her son to finish what he that had started to say.

*Maybe… but you're not old…*

"**When you're Ty's age I will be…**"

"**Who's Ty?**" Halie chimed in at the pause that followed her mum's playful comment.

"**The guy that was with Olaf**" her mum clarified.

"Right, the random stranger my kid was talking to in the park…" Halie acerbically chided her mother.

"Don't be upset Halie." Halie's mum defended "**He was nice wasn't he?**" she turned to Leif for support, going on when the boy nodded energetically "**Had a good vibe.**"

"**A good vibe?**" Halie rolled her light brown eyes "**You know that Granny isn't really magic?**" Halie signed making sure to drive the point home for her son.

"Hey!" Halie's mum called out in offense.

"**Why don't you go finish drawing? You're markers are still on the table…**" Halie pointed the small coffee table by the arm chairs in front of the changing rooms.

*But…* he tried to protest.

"**Leif…**" Halie gave him a look that said the conversation was over.

Though he huffed, the boy complied and moved to the picture he had been working on from that morning.

Turning on heel, Halie was met with disapproving sight of her mother "That wasn't nice. He likes the magic stuff…"

"But you're not magic mum. You're vibes aren't actual things…" Halie returned, crossing her arms over her chest. "I feel like I should call Whina and cancel. I mean how am I meant to leave my son with you, while you're going on about 'vibes' and whatever?"

"Come on! That's not fair Mahalia! You know I would never do anything to hurt Leif. I'd die for that boy!"

"Ok, ok…" Halie found her anger waning. She realized that she had hurt her mum with what she was implying, which made her feel so awful. Uncrossing her arms she gave her mum a look coloured with sympathy "I know you would Mum. I'm sorry. I just… I guess I panic… and if you say he wasn't in any real danger I believe you… you do have an odd sense about these things…"

"Thank you." Her mum gave a tight albeit sulky nod.

"No worries." Halie bit her lip to keep from laughing at her mum's childish stance.

"So I take it you won't be cancelling your holy engagement." The older woman spoke in a clipped tone, looking away from Halie and brushing imaginary dirt off of her skirt.

"It's just dance class mum…" Halie sighed.

"Sacred Sunday dance…" was her mum's bitter response.

Running a hand back through her long blonde hair, Halie replied to the left out feeling her mother was sending her way "You were always invited mum."

"Nah. You needed your quality time. Plus after two years you're both way too advance…"

"I guess… but you've got some moves mum" Halie grinned. Her mum's was probably right at this point anyway.

A few years ago Whina and Halie had fallen out of touch. When Leif had been born during their final year of college Whina had been so completely supportive. But then she had moved to Otago for Uni with her college sweetheart, Tom, and between everything that had changed and was changing it became extremely difficult for them to keep track of each other as the years wore on.

Halie had been there when Whina had gotten married to Tom at 19 and when she had given birth to her own son, Rangi, soon after but by the time Whina had given birth to her daughter, Hiri, two years later she and Halie had completely lost touch with each other. Now, with Rangi turning five later on this year and Hiri turning three Halie could not imagine her life without them. Whina had been an amazing help to Halie. She had even made an effort to learn some sign language, getting her husband and kids to try as much as she could too, so that Leif would have some more friends to talk to.

It had been a fantastic to hear from her when she had moved back to Auckland two years ago. She had called Halie up and pretty much right after their reunion they both had been determined to spend time to together. Carving out a schedule and committing to a dance classes to do so… though Halie was sure that Whina had the ulterior motive of losing some of the baby weight from her last pregnancy.

John had checked out the operation and had gone for a while too, but he had stopped coming… at first Halie had thought he was just coming to meet up with Whina as well, since they had all been friends for most of their lives. It had been good fun, spending time away from home life together like date nights, it didn't occur to Halie that John might have just been checking up on her until her he decided he'd rather just pick her up from the lessons.

It was horrible, she thought they had rebuilt so much but she had hurt him and she could understand it '… and probably deserve it.' She thought to herself.

He went on picking her up for the first half year of the classes, it had been a year and a half since then and he had eased up. The trust was there... but it still made Halie uncomfortable to remember the last time that she thought they were okay they really hadn't been.

In truth Halie had been relieved by her friend's choice of outing too… even though they were all still relatively young, after the freak show that had been her twenty-first birthday the whole idea of going out and partying, meeting guys, had turned Halie's stomach. The occasional glass or two of wine with John over dinner was enough for her now. She was totally fine with tattoos, drunken hallucinations and blackout nights remaining a thing of the past. She never wanted to be in that state ever again… where she wasn't herself, up and down and up and down.

'Never again…' Halie shivered, looking over to a focused looking Leif, immediately feeling her whole mind centre within her.

In any case whatever the reason, the commitment was a good way for making sure that they did see each at least once a week, especially when their lives got so crazy with work and family. It may have been expensive but after two years and bit of wearing down the cute old ballroom champions who ran the small studio, Joesph and Patsy, had decided to discount their lessons.

"What level are you at now?" Her mum asked, interrupting Halie's reminiscing.

"Full Silver…"

"Ooo 'Full Silver'…" the dark haired lady remarked as she opened the box Halie had brought out.

"It's not as hokey as it sounds, poor Whina she could be so far ahead if not for me…" Halie pursed her lips, helping her mum take out the smaller boxes holding the shoes with the cardboard. "We'd be much further along if not for..." shaking her head, Halie smiled focusing on the positive instead "Hopefully once I finish this practicum up I'll have more free time…"

"When do you start up this year?" her mum asked taking out the last of the smaller shoe boxes.

"In a couple of weeks… the guys I'm working for seem pretty awesome."

"Well that's good. Anything one I'd know?" the blue-eyed woman uncovered one of the smaller shoe boxes to look over the contents.

"Yeah. The Nari Group…" Halie tired her best not to sound nervous while she opened the smaller shoe boxes as well.

"Nari? That's sounds so familiar…" the older woman put forward thoughtfully.

The blonde girl nodded, picking up a pair of green strappy shoes to inspect more closely as she went on "Probably 'cause I've gone on about them at some length for the past six years… it's where Noel Henson is…"

"Noel Henson…" the older woman mediated on the name for a moment before exclaiming "Oh! Wow! That Henson?"

"That Henson" Halie confirmed.

"You'll be working with him?"

"I suppose" the light eyed girl replied, trying to keep her cool in the face of her mother's excitement.

"You should have said sooner, love. That's wonderful…"

Shrugging and keeping her eyes glued the shoes Halie spoke. "Don't know guess I was waiting for them to call up and say they accidently dialed the wrong number when they phoned about the placement…"

"Oh. Halie…" she didn't need to glance up to know her mum was shaking her head, objecting to Halie's insecurity. "They picked you because you're brilliant."

"Let hope they don't regret it."

"I can tell you now they won't."

"Your 'sense' thing again?" Halie joked putting the green shoes back in their box.

"No." Her mum gripped Halie's hand, squeezing it reassuringly, smiling with motherly warmth in her eyes as she explained "It's cold, hard, real evidence… my brilliant, strong, beautiful daughter…"

"Aw..." Halie returned the affectionate squeeze with one of her own "Mu..."

Halie stopped short. There was the sound of knocking coming from where Leif was sitting, he had a beeper that was loud enough for them to hear from across their house and the shop, but usually he just banged or shook whatever was closest to him to get attention.

"**Yes honey?**" Halie let go of her mum's hand and looked towards her son.

*Look* he beamed proudly lifting a piece of paper with four figures standing on a green hill, under a yellow sun. Ever since being enrolled in Year 0 for about two weeks last December, when he had turned 5, Leif had been obsessed with drawing literally every day. It was beyond adorable, as though he was preparing for the art expectation of Year 1, which was starting in a week.

"**That's lovely darling…**" Halie's mum addressed the boy "**Is that you?**" she asked about the drawing.

Nodding Leif stood up bringing paper closer and handing it to his Grandma *That's me, you, Mum and John* he listed while staring at the drawing *Family.*

It had been years but Halie could not help the punch in her gut nor the tingle up her marked side and back, the same one that happened every single time anything remotely relating to this subject came up.

Her light brown eyes flitted over the picture that her sweet son was so proud of 'Family…'

* * *

**Ok, slowly moving along. Really sorry about clunkiness.**

**If you've read my other stories suppose it's pretty clear that I like dance. Hope that's cool with everyone. Also am changing the timeline/ events of the story a bit… **

**Thank so much for the support so far. I really appreciate it! So please keep letting me know what you all think!**


	4. Chapter 4: Cannonball

**Hi! Don't know how long this whole rapid posting thing will go on for, but while it's here let's just go with it :) Hope everyone's doing all right. Editing... ugh!**

**Reminder:**

"**this talking**" = signing and talking

"this talking" = plain old talking

*this talking* = just sign language

**Chapter Four - Cannonball**

"… Still a little bit of your taste in my mouth

Still a little bit of you laced with my doubt

Still a little hard to say what's going on…"

– Damien Rice

* * *

"Argh!" Halie supposed that she should have been happy. At least she had spotted the smear of strawberry jam on her light grey skirt before she got into the lift. That morning they had all been in state of chaos. Though in reality the past five years had been a state of chaos, between her son, her classes, her jobs, learning to sign and her friends… 'and John…' she had to remind herself.

Even though she had lived through it Halie wasn't sure how they had all gotten through it all without killing each other '… all though there are times…' Halie blew a stray bit of her blond hair that had fallen out of her bun away from her face, as she furiously scrubbed at the maniacally resilient jam that had been left on the thigh of her skirt, courtesy of Leif who had decided to fly around the kitchen this morning with his breakfast like a plane.

She hadn't really had time to look herself over properly, John had reset the alarm clock when he had returned from the night shift at the hospital where he had just started as a medical intern. It was the last step before he could graduate at the end of the year and start in on his next two years of rotations in different fields of medicine. In total the plan was that in six years' time he would be a pediatrician. He had sort of had a head start, having had rushed through his first years two years of Uni schooling. John had said that after their break-up he had needed some distraction and that being drunk hadn't seemed to help.

Halie supposed that it was good for him to have gotten so far ahead… especially considering how his studies had slowed a bit when he moved in with her, her mum and Leif. It had leveled out and now he was the same age as his peers and on a very scattered schedule, which timed out well with Leif starting up school.

'Sort of timed out well…'

Luckily Halie's mum had burst in to wake her, but that morning had still been mad, they had barely made it out of the house. By the time they had left she had forgiven John for forgetting that it was her first day at the Nari Group. Her dark-haired boyfriend had looked so worn out and pitiable when he was trying to get up, insisting getting on Leif ready and making breakfast for them even though he could barely stand or speak.

It didn't take much coaxing to get him to collapse back into a cationic state, but the offer had been kind nonetheless. Halie's mum had pointed out as she helped her and Leif get ready and fed for the day.

Halie made herself remember this as she resisted the urge to growl at the stain.

Leif had been in school for a whole week now, and had taken to it like a fish to water. Halie couldn't believe her fortune, living a ten minute drive away from one of the handful of public schools that had access to a volunteer interpreter for classes with deaf children. The specialized schools were so expensive and they were strapped for cash as it was…

"But I swear I'll pay you to get the hell off…" she pleaded with the hardened scab like smudge.

'Why couldn't I have worn black?' She licked the napkin she was using while huddled in an alcove like entryway to a restricted area by the lifts. 'Red even?' she thought of the deep red pullover she was wearing, pushing her sleeves up to three quarter length, Halie tried again.

She heard the ding of lift that she had called for before she had hurried to the corner "Yes!" she resisted squealing like a child. The jam was coming off and from what she could tell there wasn't much of stain under it, so long as she didn't look too hard at it.

'Brilliant…' without taking time she couldn't spare, Halie rushed to pick up her bag and briefcase off the white marble floor. 'I'm gonna make it!' she grinned to herself confidently stepping out into the high-ceilinged hall. With the lobby filled of people behind her, she made her way to the open of the six lifts, which also happened to be the one farthest away from her.

Halie had no idea where it came from, but suddenly she had fallen to her knees. Something that felt like a bumbling idiot smacked into her back "OW!" To add insult to injury the idiot didn't even fall, he simply fumbled for a second.

"Sorry!" guessing by the direction of his trainer wearing feet, the 'idiot' had looked like he was going to turn to help her but a blur of shiny dress shoes urged him to do otherwise. Halie had no idea why but her brain was a bit fuzzy she couldn't lift her head to look past their shoes.

"Come on Axl! Nice ass or no. Hurry the fuck up!"

Still trying to blink the dark spots from her eyes, Halie was annoyed at her inability to speak 'Those eggs've given me fucking brain damage…'

"Sorry…" the young sounding man ran off to follow the other voice.

"Yeah sorry love…" the condescending voice spoke over the sound of the doors of lift closing.

A shiver of anger ran up Halie's back, loosening her tongue "ASSHOLE!" she called just before the doors slammed closed. Wincing as she tried to move, her head cleared and her knees began to hurt "Shit…" she hissed.

"You all right there?" A woman's kindly voice asked from above, flushing Halie with new humiliation, at the realization that other people had probably saw what had just happened.

"I'm fine…" she gritted out.

'Just a perpetually a geek…' Halie began to stand, she wanted to talk to Whina, just to vent. She could hear her friend's voice in her head 'not even heels and still…'

"Are you sure love? I saw the whole thing, looked like quite a hard fall…" the woman offered Halie an aged, albeit perfectly manicured, hand up.

Looking up at the concerned woman, Halie judged by her greyed hair that she was likely in her 60s. It was a bit alarming but comforting, this elegant woman seemed to hold all the genuine warmth of a truly gentle person in her expression "Thank you…" Halie took the hazel eyed woman's hand.

"Kids today have no manners…" the older woman commented.

'Strong for a frail looking thing…' Halie remarked, as she used the grey haired lady's help to heave herself up off the ground.

"No kidding…" the blond haired girl grimaced, holding inside her 'Ow…' sure that she could hear knees crack painfully back into place.

'Whoa!' her light brown eyes looked down at the elderly woman. Though Halie wasn't overly short she surprised to see someone shorter than she was.

As she continued to take in the small statured woman, impeccably dressed in a clean blue suit and wearing tasteful but very expensive looking jewelry, Halie felt her cheeks heat up with yet more embarrassment, particularly when she realized she was still holding the woman's hand. Dropping it and leaning to pick up her thankfully zipped up bag and briefcase, Halie was unsure of what to say. She settling on addressing what she had all but screamed in the middle of the marble hall "I wasn't exactly too gracious myself…"

The older woman scoffed, "Don't worry about that dear" she gave Halie's shoulder a supportive pat once the yellow haired girl had straightened back up. The woman smiled softly, ushering Halie into an empty lift that had just arrived.

Halie did not even want to think of how many lifts she had missed since that stupid fall.

Pressing the button for the 29th floor, the grey haired woman waited for Halie to nod that she was going to the top floor as well, before moving towards the girl who had edged to back as the lift filled with more people. "I wouldn't abide some random man just hurdling into me and taking off without a second glance…" the older lady went on.

"They did…" Halie stated, unsure of exactly why she was defending the guys who'd bowled her over.

"One did. His friend didn't though, did he?" the older woman stepped back when the lift stopped and some people got off, her hazel eyes ran down Halie's form, stopping at her knees "Oh dear! You'll have to get a plaster."

"Beg your…?" Halie lifted her leg forward a little to see her right knee was bleeding , from an annoying carpet burn kind of scraping "Oh, just perfect!"

"Don't worry your pretty little head. We'll get you fixed up in no time…" the small woman smiled kindly, as more people got off the lift at the next stop.

"Thank you. I…" Halie began, but as she looked at the open, sweet lady it was as though she couldn't stop herself "It's just my first day and I'm already running late for a meeting with Liam Gunn and Noel Henson and it was meant to b…" she rambled on.

"I wouldn't worry about that dear." The gray-haired woman cut in with a kind smile, as the lift doors opened leaving she and Halie as the only two remaining passengers.

"Right 'cause I probably won't have a meeting, let alone job to get to at this rate…" Halie huffed dejectedly at the sour turn of events in her morning, blowing the stray hair out her eyes again.

"No. Because, dear girl, the building mogul is my son" she chuckled warmheartedly at Halie's unconcealed surprise, holding out her hand for Halie to shake the older woman introduced herself "Adriane Gunn. Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Ah… ah…" Halie stood shell-shocked for a moment, before taking hand of the mother of the CEO and founder of the Nari Group "Likewise Mrs. Gunn." Halie attempted to keep a level head, hoping that her palm wasn't too sweaty, as she introduced herself as well "Mahalia Khoa. Or just Halie if you prefer."

"Mahalia's a lovely name…" the older woman replied, letting go Halie's hand.

"Thank you" the blond haired girl paused a moment before going on "and thank you for your… understanding." Halie finished uncertainly. She hadn't meant for it to come off insincerely. Halie had really wanted to thank the benevolent woman, but it had been strange to see such a person, with so much power also be so kind. 'Definitely breaks the stereotype…'

"Not at all. Not at all." Mrs. Gunn brushed off, as the lift slowed to a stop at their destined floor "And don't worry about my son, he's really… ah! Speak of the devil." The older woman happily announced when the door of the lift opened.

"Make it work Henson!" Halie heard a strong male voice yell before she could see where it was coming from.

'Henson? As in…' Halie felt her stomach tighten, as she quickly followed Mrs. Gunn. In the hall decorated with cold greys and whites Halie saw the back of a well-built man with salt and pepper hair, in an immaculately tailored dark grey pinstripe suit.

Just passed his shoulder she was able to catch a glimpse of blue eyes and light hair between the sliver of the doors of another lift closing, she felt her stomach twist again, this time mushing with her spine 'Damn!' she had missed him. Missed her idol. She fought the impossibly strong urge to chase after him…

'As if I even could…' her head was spinning with nerves 'Argh! What an impression? How typical Halie?' she shook her head, feeling the raw skin on her right knee starting to burn more, mostly likely due to the blood drying.

"Mahalia?"

Halie's hearing cleared, and she realized that Mrs. Gunn and the man in the pinstriped suit, who she had placed as Liam Gunn , were now facing her expectantly.

"Are you all right dear?" Mrs. Gunn asked, wearing a concerned expression again. "You look quite pale."

Forcing away her anxiety over ruining her mentor's view of her before he had ever met her, Halie made herself smile as brightly as she could.

"I'm fine. Thank you very Mrs. Gunn."

"In that case…" the older woman beamed up proudly at her son, who towered over her relatively short height and stated "Liam, I'd like you to meet Ms. Mahalia Khoa."

"Halie if you prefer something shorter…" Halie stepped forward, holding out her hand to the intimidating man.

'I wonder if Leif would ever grow that big…' she thought quickly eying the great difference between the man and his mother '… guess maybe if his father…' Halie cut off her sore train of thought.

"How nice to meet you finally…" his grey eyes focused on hers as he shook her hand with both is his. It made him all the more intimidating, his fingers engulfed her hand and brushed her wrist.

"Ahem. Yes…" Halie pulled her hand away from him. "I'm very sorry I missed our meeting, I had a little…"

"She had a run in with some hapless brutes." Mrs. Gunn interjected, taking her son's arm and craning her head back to see him properly.

"Brutes, eh?" Mr. Gunn smiled, there was something wolfish about it. Halie wasn't sure if he was unsettling on purpose, or if he was simply unaware. But whatever it was it rubbed her the wrong way.

'Great start Halie…' she held her fake smile in place 'Woot!'

* * *

'Oh my gosh!' Halie barely had a spare breath to think that thought before her phone rang. Leif and Halie had just returned to an empty house and in part Halie had been grateful but recognizing the customized ring tone she answered.

"So how was it?" Halie was questioned before she could even speak.

"Oh you have no idea Whi…"

Holding the phone between her ear and shoulder, Halie signed to her son *Go put your things away…* she watching as Leif picked up his backpack from where he had dropped it by the front door.

"It's you so…"

"Right." Halie sighed. Walking further into the lounge and closing the door behind her. Kicking off her shoes and feeling the familiar red shag carpet beneath her feet Halie relaxed a bit. The purple jungle like room, filled with green leafy plants like most of the house, was lit brightly by the sun through the large window on the wall that it shared with front door... it was warm and safe.

Glancing to make sure that Leif had gone down the hall leading to the bedrooms and toilet to the right of the door, Halie headed towards the kitchen, walking through lounge under the doorway opposite the wall with the large window and into their homey kitchen, with its blue lino and green walls. Halie explained the highlights of her day from jam, to wankers, to bad impressions and creepy bosses as she made a snack for Leif and herself. "The one cool thing is I did meet my boss's mother…"

"'Cause that's so cool…"

"She really is." Halie threw away the note on the kitchen counter from John, saying he'd gone to the gym as she carried on describing Mrs. Gunn "She was a prominent doctor, who invested well and married young and is pretty much one of nicest people ever…" Halie got out a knife and some plates on the kitchen table, as she tried to convey the true awesomeness of the woman she had met.

"Huh…"

Realizing it was a lost cause Halie shifted the focus to her friend "And how was your day missus?"

"Ooo, well today I spent six hours trying to convince a bunch of endangered plants not to die…" Whina spoke, her bitterness clear over the phone.

"And?" Halie asked as she took four slices of bread out of the bread box.

"Outlook is bleak."

"Aw. Sorry Whi..." Halie frowned, moving to get the peanut butter and jam from the fridge. Whina was botanist and most of the time it seemed that her work was an uphill struggle to keep plants from dying out. They had both shared a love of growing things but Mahalia's knack for science had been slanted towards physics, while John and Whina had a better time with biology and chemistry... Tom, oddly enough, couldn't stand the numbers and had a taste for literature 'Suppose every group needs its black sheep...' Halie reasoned.

"It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't feel like I was the only person who gave a shit. You know?" Whina breathed heavily.

"I know…" Halie mumbled, her light brown gaze landing on the picture of the four figures Leif had drawn a few weeks ago stuck with magnets to the orange door of the fridge. Her stomach turned mushy for the third time that day, the two other occasion flitting quickly through her mind.

"Hari no!" Halie heard her friend yell over the phone.

"Ah! Adventures in child rearing…" the blond laughed, as she opened the fridge.

"Adventures? I call them minor heart attacks…" the sound of something smashing came through the earpiece.

"That didn't sound too good…" Halie commented carrying the jars to the table.

A frustrated "Agh!" was all Halie heard.

"No one hurt?" Halie asked.

"Not yet…" came Whina unpleased sounding reply.

"I'd better let you…"

"Yeah. Talk later."

"You bet." Halie hung up and finished making the sandwiches. She was just screwing the lids back on to the jars when her phone rang again.

Knowing the ring tone once again Halie answered "Hi Mum."

"Hey babe. How was your first day?"

"Eventful… sort of…" Halie cringed, putting the jars back.

"Eventful, sort of?" she heard the confusion in her mum's voice.

"I'll explain when you get home." Halie offered, not in the mood to rehash everything so soon again "What's up?"

"The guy!" Her mum excited squawked.

"The guy?" Halie repeated with a frown.

"The guy! The guy! From the park. Olaf… he showed up here."

Remembering that particularly day, Halie nodded "Oh… And?"

"Well don't you think that means something?" Her mum asked a little frantically, just as Leif stomped into the kitchen.

"That he was looking for good quality thrifting?" Halie smiled at her son, handing him the plate with his sandwich on it.

"No Mahalia." She sighed, clearly not amused by Halie's guess.

Leaning back against the counter, and taking a bite of her own sandwich Halie watched Leif eat his food, she could tell wanted to tell her about his day by how fast his eating in an attempt to get his hands free.

"Well, I doubt he could have seen you and not been interested mum." Halie sighed.

"You think? And him showing up at the shop… that's good, right?"

"Dunno. You tell me." The blond shrugged.

"It's good. He was so curious, asking about my life, about how Leif was… he seems really sweet."

"That's nice, Mum." Halie smiled, happy that her mum was so excited "But…"

"But what?"

"What about Bryan?" Halie referred to the man she had been seeing for the past four years. She had always said it was nothing serious, but Halie liked Bryan and suspected that the whole casual thing was not exactly what he had in mind when he thought of Nadine Khoa.

"Well…" her mum trailed off.

"Yeah?"

"Bryan's a great guy, but there's nothing wrong with keeping your options open. I mean I'm not dead yet…"

"Uh huh…"

"You're not judging me over there are you?" her mum asked shakily.

"Of course not Mum… I just want you to be happy." Halie's eye caught briefly on the drawing again, but the sparks up her side and the hit to her guts with as strong as ever.

Usually it happened with the family stuff, she thought back to strangeness at the lifts… 'Gosh! If this is stomach thing gonna start happening every day…'

"Oh hun. I want that for you too." Her mum's voice broke her line of thought.

"Yeah…"

"I'll be home around seven. You eat your tucker before then ok?" her mum urged, as Leif finished gobbling up his sandwich. He stood up, showing his empty hands to Halie victoriously.

"All right mum. See you then. Love you."

"Love you too, darling."

Putting her phone down on the counter, Halie stopped her son in his tracks "**Wait right there, mister!**"

*What?*

"**You and your jam hands better stay away far away from me…**"

*Jam hands?* Leif looked at his strawberry and peanut butter smeared fingers, when he looked back up at his mum he had a mischievous smirk on his face.

"**Don't even… AH!**" Halie squealed, running away gleefully hooting and smiling as her son chased her around their home.

'Who cares about a stomach?' She thought to herself, wrestling and tickling her son to the floor, though Leif managed to wipe a food covered hand across her laughing face 'I have this…'

* * *

**Hope you're liking it. Sorry about edit. Let me know what you think, sure appreciate it!**


	5. Chapter 5: Pompeii

**Hey! Here's another chapter. If you need a key for the sign language then GET OUT!... Nah just kidding :P Look in either chapter 3 or 4. Thanks for all the support, you make me smile. Sorry about editing and chunky parts… Onward!**

**Chapter Five – Pompeii**

"… But if you close your eyes,

Does it almost feel like

Nothing changed at all?

And if you close your eyes,

Does it almost feel like

You've been here before? …"

– Bastille

* * *

"Let it go Axl." Anders rolled his light blue eyes at his younger brother's snippy attitude.

"Let it go? You made it sound like this was a big thing to do with …" Axl's stopped, turning his head to make sure they couldn't be overheard in the underground carpark, "God shit."

Scrunching up his face "God shit?" Anders replied, as though it were something gross he could smell under his noise.

"Yeah…" Axl scoffed at his brother's dismissive tone, though he followed the lighter haired God to his expensive car. "But instead it's just some bullshit business meeting with a builder guy…"

"It was important, I do P.R. Axl, if a company is putting down roots in Auckland then they need publicity and having the right words go with that…" Anders unlocked and opened his driver side door "namely my words…" he grinned at Axl over the roof the car.

"Yes, but did you really need me?"

"No. But it was urgent and I wasn't about to leave you alone in my car, was I? …and" Anders raised a hand to keep Axl's angry response at bay "… as a soon to be graduated builder, it was a good connection for you to make…"

Anders had picked Axl up to bring to Mike's for a birthday thing in honour of Axl's 23rd a week ago. It was meant to be a surprise but Anders had told Axl exactly what it was, when he called to say that he'd been coerced into picking the youngest Johnson brother up. He had also informed Axl of the way the Mike had sounded over the phone. In short it hadn't a very happy tenor…

"I flattened that girl, for a business connection?" Axl went on with a question, clearly not okay with how he had acted that morning.

Anders rolled his eyes again, getting into the car with a shake of his head. "You can't get your knickers in a knot for every chick that makes your dick twitch…" he explained to his little brother, starting the car once the passenger side door was closed.

"What? She didn't make my… my…" Axl found himself struggling despite the anger that was obviously escalating within him.

"You sure?" Anders purposely ignored the tone of disgust in Axl's voice as he went on "Wouldn't blame you felt a little something…" he gave an appreciative whistle in reference to the girl Axl had clumsily smacked into and left on the floor of the marble hallway.

"You really are a prick."

"Look bro, if she's not the fucking Frigg then there's no need to get all crook about it…" Anders said, putting down his window to hand his parking pass to the guy in the security booth. He turned to eye his younger brother with some curiousity "….she wasn't the Frigg, right?"

"Um fairly certain not… mostly 'cause of Gaia…" Axl tiredly repeated for his elder brother for the thousandth time "…remember?" he added with some bitterness, Anders had not been subtle about his less than kind thoughts regarding Gaia.

"Yeah, yeah… you can never be too sure with these things…" the older man muttered, as he checked the road and pulled out the car out of the carpark.

"Well I am. Gaia and me… we're meant to be together…" Axl spoke his voice becoming dreamy, while his dark blue eyes wandered wistfully to look out at the city.

"God. I hope so…" Anders breathed, his light blue consideration flitting off of the road and over to his brother "otherwise you'll have made me nauseous for no bloody reason…"

* * *

"**I can see you there Leif…**" Halie lifted her hands and voice but not her light brown eyes to speak to her son.

It had been a rather hectic day. Her mum had said that Halie was killing herself for no reason. And maybe she was, but Halie would be damned if the impression she left on Noel Henson was not a good one.

John had been supposed to watch Leif but someone had called from the hospital, desperately needing a shift covered. He had grimaced at Halie before leaving, kissing her and Leif on their foreheads before darting off for the day.

If that wasn't enough, shortly after Halie's mum called from the shop. One of their family friends, Batty Aunt Judy, had gotten arrested at some protest against the site where mining set to happen a few hours outside of the city. For that Halie had actually urged her mum to go, Judy didn't have any family close by and it didn't make sense for her to sit in a cell when they could post bail for her.

Which was how, on a Saturday, Halie had ended up in the shop her eyes glued to the plans that Mr. Henson had developed for Mr. Gunn's clients. Normally she committed to Sundays only for helping her mum at the store for this reason. Usually she could finish up her more formal work by then.

But today she had felt a bit deflated, she had specifically asked John to watch Leif for the day so that she could study every inch of the design and learn some background on the company that they had been contracted by. He didn't seem to understand.

Though so far all she was doing for Mr. Henson was getting coffee, making copies and taking minutes in meetings, she felt was still learning a lot about the business. Noel Henson, was a tall patient, man with greying light hair and green eyes that were often squinting at some minute detail that someone else had missed. Each day he was only adding to her awe of him. Having him as a mentor Halie was absolutely positive she had lucked out, he seemed to be stern but with a generally good humour and desire to passing along his expertise. And when the time came or the opportunity to show her value presented itself she wanted to be ready.

Halie had realized when she had seen him closely that the person she had spied at the closing lift on her first day had been someone else. 'Not that's much better… I was still late…' Halie snorted out an exhale of air through her nose.

She had meant to do more background research on the company they were building for, but during the first week alone Halie hardly had a spare moment at work. On top of that Whina and Tom had been tied up at their own jobs somehow Whina had gotten a late schedule for the past week while Tom was tasked with attending lectures at Unis in the South Island. Halie knew that if she asked, they would do the favour for her in a second… so she had also been picking Rangi and Hiri up from daycare and preschool and taking care of them along with Leif. Between the three of them Halie was totally drained by the end of each night over the past week. Saturday was meant to be her catch up day.

'Meant to be…' Halie mocked humourlessly. Checking the time on her phone on the counter where she was standing with her papers spread out before her, Halie sighed, closing her eyes and rolling her shoulders. 'Three more hours…' she had that much time to finish absorbing what she could and get ready for the event that was supposed to be a cross between a presentation and a celebration of the Fenrir Vodka company's expansion and success. It was a little odd to host such a large party for a relatively small company but she had supposed it was fitting as they were in the business of alcohol… and perhaps they had other larger ventures associated with them 'of course I would know nothing about that…' Halie disappointedly remarked, stretching out her arms as she opened her eyes, to stare at the dismal state of the pages before her.

At first she had been unsure about even going, if she'd even considered for inclusion, but Mrs. Gunn seemed to have seen to it that Halie was invited. Mr. Henson seemed to think it was a good idea for her as well, for networking purposes. Halie's nerves had subsided a bit when she realized that this could be her chance at redemption and that John would be there.

'Would have been there…' she corrected herself. He had mentioned calling and trying to make it after his shift… but judging by how exhausted he tended to be after these twelve hours shifts Halie had a feeling she'd be going alone. A part of her felt really sorry for John, he was trying to fill the quota of twelve hours shifts that it was mandatory for him to complete so that he could just work eight hour shifts for the rest of the year.

"Almost there…" he had apologetically stated before racing out of the house.

Dropping her arms Halie, shook off the uncomfortable feeling of being abandoned. 'Oh well…' she leaned back over her papers.

With a small amused smile, Halie signed, "**I can still see you, you little beast…**" she saw the five year old raise his arms in exasperation out of the corner of her eye. Leif had been creeping up quietly as he could behind the counter. Since she had said she could not play with him the bored boy had been trying to scare her in an attempt to get her attention.

The sound of the sea shell door chime drew Halie's focus to see who had come into the shop.

A tall man, wearing brown sunglasses, jandals, short orange border shorts, a matching tropical shirt and a straw cowboy hat stood at the door.

Halie wasn't usual one to judge, but by the way he held himself and moved it was pretty hard to shake the sense that this guy was one of those go with flow, hippy, surfer types. She didn't know why but even though he was wearing dark sunglasses she felt as though she could tell his eyes were staring at her.

"Hi…" she began to greet him when, to her surprise, Leif ran forward excitedly addressing the stranger.

*Olaf!*

'Oh…' the fear at seeing her son run up to a stranger before she could stop him dissipated a little as she took the tall man in more 'Totally mum's type…' she smiled to herself.

"**Hey little friend.**" The man named Olaf looked to the boy. "**How are you?**"

*Good… I started school. There are all these other kids and…*

The man took off his glasses, "**Wait, wait. How about you tell your Mum who I am first?**" Olaf raised his greenish-blue eyes to look at Halie.

'Definitely mum's type…' Halie confirmed, resisting the temptation to chuckle, as she made note of how obviously this man had the lazy stare of a long time stoner.

Both of the males moved closer to the counter.

*Mum! This is Olaf…* Leif grinned happily up at his tall friend as he introduced him.

"Pleased to meet you Halie. Your Mum's told me a lot about you."

"And you." Halie smiled, not wanting to throw her mum under the bus with her crush, she added "I mean it's nice put a face to the name…"

It was weird… the way this Olaf guy was staring at her. Not creepy weird like whenever she was met with Mr. Gunn, the vibe from this guy was much less threatening… it was softer, warmer almost…

'Probably 'cause it's just harmless stoner staring…' Halie reasoned, smiling at the poor man that she was sure was high out of his wits.

"**It's pretty amazing that you guessed I'm his Mum…**" Halie spoke, signing to keep Leif included "**We don't really look alike…**" she cast a glance at her son who had his blue eyes stuck to Olaf. 'Not even paying attention…'

"Oh no…" the tall man spoke slowly, his gaze drifting down to Leif as well "you'd have to be his Mum."

"Ah…" Halie wasn't quite sure how to take that oddly paced comment, so she simple took it as a compliment "Well, thank you." She smiled "**He's awesome to have as kid. Even if he smells bad sometimes…**" she teased, when she was sure Leif was looking at her.

*No, I do not!*

"**Do too!**"

*You're the one who smells…*

"**Only 'cause I'm always around you, little beast.**" Halie joked.

There was the sound of deep inhale, bringing her light brown focus back to the tall man in the shop "**I think you both smell fine…**"

"Thank you again" Halie stated with a chuckle at the man's peculiar behaviour. "So… were you here to see my mum? Or just…" she gesture at the general contents of the shop.

"Ah… yeah." He glanced around the shop, not really seeming too interested at what he saw, his greenish gaze landed back on Halie "I'll just come by another time…" he said as though he was working out what he was saying as he said it.

"That sounds good…" Halie nodded. Watching as Olaf explained that he had to go, but would be back soon to Leif. He waved good-bye and left in the same odd manner he had come in.

"**So that's your friend?**" she asked, when Leif turned to face her.

Nodding his brown haired head he said *He's cool huh?*

Slowly nodding as well, Halie responded with a grin "**I guess Granny was right with her sensing…**" Halie widened her eyes comically, earning a laugh from Leif "… **she might be magic after all…**"

* * *

"For running the business you do." Halie replied to the text from her mum. She had sent a message thanking her mum earlier, now as she clarified and looked down at herself she knew still owed her thanks.

She had spotted the dark emerald green dress and metallic silver shoes just as she was bustling Leif out of store and second guessing what she had already chosen to wear that night. Paying for the clothes and leaving, she was very pleased with her mother's policy of washing clothes and cleaning and thoroughly inspecting shoes.

After quickly shaving and deodorizing, Halie had tried everything on… The dress fit well hitting about 5 or 6 centimetres above her ankle, strapless the material gathered at her bosom and had an empire waist. Thankfully the back was high enough to hide her tattoo, though she had grown to like the thing it was not exactly business appropriate. She was also glad to have found these shoes… the criss-cross of material at the open toe and the stiffener at the back meant she wouldn't be in danger of sliding out her footwear, which had happened before. And the one inch heel not only gave her some height but also meant there was less risk of tripping over herself… which had also happened before.

She had thrown her long blond hair up in a messy bun, pulled her diamond studs out of hiding, put on some eyeliner and shoved the stuff that she needed into a small silver bag from her mum's closet. Checking Leif's overnight bag to make sure he had everything he need for a sleepover, she took in a cab to drop Leif off with Whina, who had agreed to step in when it became clear Halie's mum couldn't watch Leif for the night as planned. By the time she had gotten to Whina's, Leif was drowsy, she was already half a hour late. Her friend, after approving of Halie's state of dress, had hurried her away.

Now it was quarter past ten and Halie was over an hour late. As she stood alone waiting for the lift in air conditioned foyer of this warehouse cum banquet and party hall, Halie wished she had remembered a shawl. 'At least outside isn't so bad…' over the sound of the pounding music a coming from above, Halie could hear the creak of the ancient sounding lift as it neared.

It may only have made her all the more geeky but as she stood there she also had her light brown eyes glue to the screen of her phone, after she had responded to her mum's text she had gone right back to reading up on the company's history.

There was shuddering sound of metal stopping as the lift reached the foyer, the old door screeched open and without looking up Halie walked into the large sparsely lit car. There was only button to push for the single floor above. She was vague aware of someone following her in but didn't look back up from her phone after pressing the button.

As the lift began moving at the slowest possible rate, Halie closed her eyes to running over what she had just read. In that time she became acutely aware of the other person in the lift stepping towards her. Quickly opening her eyes, she began to pivot to see how close the other person really was just as the lift jerked violently.

"Whoa!" She lost her footing mid-turn and stumbled back fully expecting to fall on to the floor but when she caught her bearings she realized she had stumbled back to pressed against a decidedly male form, that had been a lot closer than she had thought and who was probably sandwiched between her and the wall of the stuck lift.

But none of that matter. That all might as well have been gibberish. Halie's eyes had fallen closed, her mind was spinning out of control, she felt so sick but so goddamn good. Leaning into him, she could feel something a nose?... lips? Skimming the nape of her neck. Sniffing and tasting her. It was hot. Like a trail of light, the same light where his fingers touched the bare skin of her arms. She could feel him through his trousers against her backside. All at once, but so slowly it… fuzzy bits of it all barrelled down on her like a pile of bricks… she recognized everything, it was all so familiar… the feel, the smell, the heat… Like when her marked skin tingled times a million. 'Oh god what is this?' she felt so heightened, so on fire.

She blinked her eyes open and craned her blond head back to catch a glimpse of the person who was holding on to her like she was life itself. Halie was glad to be propped up then, as she saw what she thought she would never, ever get to see for as long as she lived.

There, just over her shoulder, she saw exactly where her son had gotten his eyes from.

"Mother fucking, son of bitch!"

* * *

**Ooo! Right? You can all probably tell where this thing is going but hooray for sort of cliffhangers!**

**Let me know what you think!**


	6. Chapter 6: Devil In a New Dress

**Hey! Hope people are liking the story so far... Thanks for sticking with me and the support. Sorry about editing.**

**Chapter Six – Devil In a New Dress**

"… When the sun go down it's the magic hour

And outta all the colors that'll fill up the skies

You got green on your mind

I can see it in your eyes

Why you standing there with your face screwed up?..."

– Kanye West

* * *

"Jesus!" He hissed 'Come on, come on just a bit...'

"Hel... OH! Ahh..."

"Crap!" Anders immediately stopped what he was doing on his couch, bolting up and pulling his pants back from around his ankles. "Grandpa!"

The bald headed God simply shrugged lazily, "The door was unlocked, think someone's broken the one downstairs again..." looking his unimpressed grandson over, "I was in the area and you cannot fathom how badly I needed a drink..." Olaf explained, taking in Anders still disorientated state he offered what was likely meant to be reassurance "Nothing wrong with wanking, Anders... we all can't be masters with the girls" he apparently couldn't resist taking the piss either, as he walked further into Anders flat heading towards the kitchen.

"Hey! I have no problem with getting play, Olaf." The light haired God followed his grandfather into kitchen watching as the older man rifled through the cupboards until her found a bottle of rum.

Olaf picked up two glasses and put them on the countertop of island in front of him. "Uh huh..." He began pouring.

"I'll have you know. I had a very successful night tonight..."

"Hence the wanking..." Olaf replied sarcastically.

"No. That's courtesy of some bitch who chewed me out for no fucking reason..."

"Nice." The older man nodded, taking a drink out of his glass "Passions that arise in the heat of anger are usually the most fun…" his brow furrowed as he went on "Did she break your door?"

"No, she wasn't here. I went to an event one second she was just" Anders held his hands out before his body as though he were gripping something, his cheeks inflate with air he looked as though he could see what he was talking about.

"Hot?" Olaf suggested as he poured another drink for himself.

"Yeah... But like really..."

"Hot?"

"Yeah... I don't know what the fuck happened, it was like magnets or something... one minute we're stuck in a lift... both chuffed to be there, by the way, and the next she decides to go barking mad. Shouting at me about tattoos, going on about me being a 'molester' and 'rapist'... fucking crazy shit." Anders scoffed, waiting for his Grandfather to agree with his dismissal of the accusations.

"Well..." Olaf reasoning eyes squinted as he contemplated Anders.

"Come on! It's not like I make them do anything they wouldn't do eventually..."

"If you say so..."

"Anyway, I reckon the fact I didn't recognize her egged her on a bit... I swear there was something about her though, grandpa, it was like she had a direct line to my cock... even while she yelled bloody murder at me, it like nothing I'd ever felt before... then the next thing she was shoving her tongue down my throat and my head..." Anders blue eyes widened as he signalled an explosion around his ears "I don't even have the words... Me! The God of bloody Poetry..." he pointed himself, raking his fingers back through his hair with a sigh, he went on "All I know is I saw fucking stars and then she scampered the hell away, but not before she bit me and told me to sod right off and go molest someone else..."

"She bit you?" Olaf's face creased in confusion as he watched Anders nod and stick out his tongue. "She bit your tongue?"

"Isn't there a mark or something."

"Nope..." Olaf shook his head, unable to keep himself from snorting "Bragi God of bitten tongues..."

"It's not funny. It hurt like a goddamn bitch..." Anders clicked his tongue against his teeth "I tell you, you have no idea how difficult it is to walk around a party looking for some psycho chick while you've got half a stack and a sore mouth..."

"So no hard feelings between you then?" Olaf referred to Anders search for the girl.

"She might give Colin Gunnderson a run for his money in the fucking maniac department, but I can't get her out of..." Anders suddenly cut himself off with a weary sigh "Four..."

"Four?"

"I've had it on with four different women tonight, thought I almost had her beaten out. But then I don't know... Poof! There she was in my head... actually..." Anders looked down "sort of just gripping my fucking nuts again."

"Hmm..." Olaf nodded, pouring himself yet another drink.

The way he had made the noise had caused Anders to lift his gaze to ask "What do you mean 'hmm'?"

Taking a sip of his drink before responding Olaf stated with some confidence "I think I know who you're talking about..."

"How could you know who I'm talking about? I haven't described her to you..."

"Yeah... but there are signs." Olaf waved his hands.

"Signs? Like oracle signs or I'm wasted signs?"

"Oracle. Mostly... I think..."

Rolling his eyes, Anders began to speak "In that case..."

"Listen…" Olaf interrupted clearly a bit sore about Anders lack of faith, he listed his reasons "The things you're saying, what your feeling, and some recon of my own..."

"Recon?" Anders scoffed.

"Um hum" Olaf nodded, taking another drink "Oh!" here dug through the pockets of his board shorts to pull out a business card. "Pretty good undercover work if say so myself..." Olaf smirked prideful at the card.

"Ooo yes the skill involved in obtaining a business card..."

"No need to be cruel... not when I'm trying to help you..."

"Then help me Grandpa." The light haired man pressed

"I think you've met Idun." Olaf eyes widened a little, showing the weight he thought the information had.

"Idun?"

"Though her yelling at you was a bit odd. Typically Iduns are pretty into their Bragis…"

Anders frowned, his focus drifting as he only partially took in the rest of what Olaf had just said "As in Idun, Idun? That Idun?" he asked.

"Yep."

"Probably why she so upset about me forgetting her…"

"If you'd met Idun before you wouldn't forget her."

Anders breathed, nodding with some acceptance at this new revelation. Even with as little as his grandfather's word to go on, it felt too right to deny "Cool..."

"Ah, not really mate." Olaf stated, getting a questioning look from Anders "Not for her anyway. The fate of Idun after meeting Bragi usually is not the best..."

"Well right now the fate of my dick looking pretty fucking sore and it's her fault, so she can take care of it..."

"Oh..." Olaf pensively spoke "I was actually seriously debating whether or not to tell you about her..."

"And? Your point..."

The bald headed man explained as though it were obvious "You know? The whole ill-fated destiny thing..."

"We'll cross that bridge if we come to it."

"I don't know if you should Anders, there's..." They were cut off by sound of Anders cell phone ringing from the coffee table in the lounge.

'Trust Ty to fuck up something gift wrapped for him...' Anders thought to himself when he saw who was calling and answered the phone.

"It's 2 in the morning Dawn."

"I'm well aware of that Anders."

"Ty keeping you up?" he alluded to the favour he'd done for his younger brother, by getting Dawn to his house.

"What?" she harshly asked, before going on "No."

"Well what then?" He demand hotly, in part frustrated at his brother's inability to hold a girl and Dawn's annoyed tone.

"I just got a call from the Fenrir vodka people, they're pissed about something you did..."

"I did?" Anders asked, thinking through the women he had gotten with at the party… the three from the store room and one from the bathroom were fuzzy. All he could really remember was the mental case from the lift. Nonetheless he was pretty sure… certain really, that none of the women would stir any trouble and that no one had seen them.

"You left at 1."

"So..." He felt a little let down, that didn't seem too bad.

"You were meant to meet..."

"Oh shit..." it struck Anders, he lolled his head back, groaning in annoyance. "Curt Hindstead..."

"Ah, yeah..."

Checking his wrist watch again, though he knew the time already, Anders winced "You think he's still there?"

"That's why I'm awake at two in the morning..." Dawn snapped at him over the phone "they said he got their fifteen minutes ago. You know how important it is Fenrir to have a politician on..."

"I get it Dawn" Anders irritably cut her off as he went about straightening himself out. Lately his powers had been more effective, tonight he'd get to see if he could turn the ear of a somewhat influential person.

'And maybe my insane Idun is still...' he grinned a little at the thought.

"Anders!" Dawn's voice brought his focus back "Are you listening?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm going now Dawn."

"Good." She huffed shortly, ending the call.

"Good night to you too" Anders muttered to the sound of a dial tone. "All right Grandpa." Anders raised his voice to reach Olaf, as he pocketed his phone "I gotta go back to work, don't drink all my booze and do not, and I mean do not, fall asleep here..." he gave his granddad a stern look on his way to the door.

Olaf face was scrunched up in confusion "You're going to drive after drinking?"

"You did the drinking Grandpa..."

Olaf turned his confused expression to his own empty glass "Oh right..."

"Don't fall asleep here" Anders reiterated.

He already halfway out the door when Olaf called "Anders I really think we should..."

"We'll do it later Grandpa." Anders responded and shut the door before the older man could finish.

The following morning Anders came home from the lovely 'Sabrina?... Sophia?... Natalie!' from the lovely Natalie's to find Olaf gone along with most of the rum he had in the house.

"Fucking moocher…" Ander's loosened the knot on his tie. He had charmed the hell out of Hindstead and was feeling a bit better since last night, but that insane chick had stuck in his head the whole night.

When he went off to shower, she was in his head, 'Fucking crazy…' She was there when he shaved, got dressed, ate his breakfast in the kitchen… where something caught his eye.

A smile crept across his lips as he looked at his kitchen counter top, "Thank you Grandpa." He cheers'd before finishing his toast with a satisficed grin.

* * *

When Halie got home she felt so strange. She had no idea how or why, suddenly it was as though the floodgates of her past had been opened. Things that she had tried to so hard to remember for the past six years had in the span of a second overwhelmed her whole being. It shouldn't have made sense, she shouldn't have believed it but her gut was telling her it was the truth, she could feel it in her bones.

Some parts were missing, out of order and vague but she could recall a face, a feel, amazing heat...

'Oh god!' she was still on fire. She had run out of the lift and headed immediately for the stairs at the far side of the large party hall. She just had to get out of there.

Halie had been in enraged, from what she could piece together this had been the guy from that night. The guy who had taken her virginity, who had taken advantage of her drunken state, who had... who had turned her knees into jelly as soon as she saw him.

It was a powerful mix. One that Halie couldn't make sense of, she had wanted to yell at him so she had done just that… at length. The way his bewildered blue eyes took her in as she berated him had only aggravated her more. The lift had jerked to start moving again, he hadn't seemed to notice but she had and it had filled with panic. She could feel her gut wrench, she knew once the door opened she wouldn't get a chance and she just had to... she had to kiss him...

Before she could think about it, she had wrapped arms around his neck and pressed her lips against his. Her fingers raked through his soft sandy brown hair, while his hot hands roamed up her body, drawing her closer. 'Oh god...' was all she could think, as she breathed and drank as much of him in as she could. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before, but at the same time it was like coming back to a familiar place.

'A familiar place...' she had been grateful for that thought passing through her muddled mind as it led her to think of her son. Though keeping her panting mouth on his Halie began to centre herself, she could hear people mingling behind her as the lift door opened. Her mind calmed the more she thought of her son.

Allowing space for anger to spike in her again, which in turn resulted in her biting his tongue, so that he recoiled away from her. She'd told him exactly what she thought of him before getting the holy heck out of there.

'He's not getting near my son...' she thought on the ride home 'What if he works there? I'll quit. He's not getting near my son...' she tried to keep her mind on Leif and on attempting to force herself to uncover more about that night... but it was hopeless.

She was burning right through with life. The energy inside of her was something she had only ever felt once before… from another night she could barely remember.

"Oh god…" she groaned, trying to get a handle on what was happening to her. Normally she could squash whatever bugged her right down, but with every nerve ending in her body so heightened and insides still basically the consistency of custard Halie had barely been able to pay the cab driver let alone come down from this buzz.

She had a need to do something… hence throwing herself on John's sleeping form, when she saw him laying there on the bed, home from work. "Wake up…" she practically begged.

"Mmmm" he grumbled, his mouth lazily responding to her fevered kisses. "Jus' 'leep" he incoherently mumbled out, she could see his brown eyes were closed in dim light coming off the street through the bedroom curtain. She would not give in though, not when she needed it so badly, she tried touching and nipping at him to wake him. Apparently growing tired of her attack, he wrapped an arm around her waist, while still on his back he held her laying on her on her side with her back pressed against him. "Leif…" he offered as a muttered reason.

"Leif's not…" Halie began, but stopped when she heard the sound of snoring behind her.

'Yet again…' she huffed out a frustrated breath. "Argh…" she moaned, into her pillow falling, under protest, into a restless sleep.

'What's that smell?' She asked drowsily, engulfed with scent of Spring as she woke up the next groggy morning with her own hand between her legs and John as far away on the other side of the bed as could be, still fast asleep…

* * *

**Yeah… so, always had a thing for young Hercules.**

**Hope everyone's doing well and that the AU-ness stuff doesn't bug anyone too badly...**


	7. Chapter 7: Disparate Youth

**Hey hope everyone's doing well! Missed the past few episodes... definitely not happy about that but oh well.**

**Chapter Seven – Disparate Youth**

"Don't look ahead, there's stormy weather

Another roadblock in our way

But if we go, we go together

Our hands are tied here if we stay…"

– Santigold

* * *

"What the…" The blond girl turned her head when she heard a tired voice behind her.

Halie had gotten up that morning, deciding to write off the previous night, she would make breakfast for John, pray that Mrs. Gunn wasn't offended, e-mail Mr. Henson about some family emergency that kept her from the event and go on with her life as though her whole world had not been shaken up. The plan had been going fairly well, she had washed and changed without waking John, but on her way to the kitchen she had encountered a stumbling block.

"Yeah I have no idea…" Halie nodded her eyes following the path John's gaping expression.

"I mean, I'm not wrong right?" John walked further into the violet coloured lounge. "It's still the middle of Summer isn't it?"

"Uh huh" Halie was having trouble keeping her mouth closed, as her light brown gaze took in the sight of the many plants in their home which had suddenly blossomed... out of season.

"You sure it's not Springtime?" he asked incredulously, picking a few of the purple Geranium.

"Uh huh…"

"So?" his dark brown eyes moved to look at her, searching for an explanation as since she had brought the plants in years ago it was Halie who had the responsibility of caring for the plentiful foliage in the house.

"Um… I've got a green thumb?" she shrugged lamely biting her lip, as she guessed at why this inexpiable thing had happened.

"A pretty remarkable one I'd say…" John's gaze wandered around the room, when his brown eyes landed on Halie he smiled. "Well, they're beautiful… " he offered warmly, walking towards her "No matter where they came from…" John handed her the Geranium, wrapping his arms around her, he rested his chin atop her yellow head.

Halie felt some relief wash over her, she clung to the back John's t-shirt. He had no idea what she gone through, she really didn't have any idea either… but if she held on to him she would be ok. Leif was what she needed to be whole, but he couldn't run up and physically keep her from doing stupid things. John though… she nuzzled her nose against his chest, laughing at  
his comment about industrial sized vases. 'This'll be fine…' she thought to herself.

Who could hold her down better than her best friend?

* * *

"And you can go there…" Halie huffed, standing on a stool to reach up to an empty top shelf in the store, where she was placing the final vase of cuttings she had hauled out of her home that morning.

It hadn't been until she had opened the front door that morning that she realized it wasn't just indoors where the growth had occurred. All up the garden path and in the yard there were blooms. Mrs. Fugit, from next door, had been staring over the fence at the extremely lush garden. It was particularly striking to see the dark greens and colours next to the other lawns that were starting to dry out and brown in the summer heat.

"Hello Mrs. Fugit… you're welcome to pick what you like…" hadn't really worked as a greeting. The white haired neighbour, who was forever in a hairnet and yellow tinged muumuu, simply scowled… her exchanges with the Khoas had never been all that friendly. She was a straight-forward, stiff upper lip type of lady and Halie was sure that the white-haired woman thought her mum was an absolute fruitcake. She had taken a fancy to John, giving Halie something tease him about, and she also gave Leif caramels whenever she saw him... but gave the women of the house nothing but frowns.

That didn't stop Halie and her mum from trying to be sociable though…

'Wouldn't make a difference…' Halie observed as she stepped off the stool, craning her blond head back to look at the vase on the top shelf. Their whole street could have clipped flowers from their yard all day and their house would still be swamped with flowers.

"Maybe we live in one of those weird twilight zone-y areas…" John had suggested. That had been some hours ago in the morning. He had dropped her off at work, before going off to the hospital again. Since then Halie had been shoving as many flowers into the shop as she could, taking a few breaks now then to actually work. The sight and smell of it all was sort of overpowering, especially with the plants that had already been there to begin with. It had been a pretty quiet day otherwise. Leif was staying with Whina until their dance class, he would be going along with them as Halie's mum hadn't made it back from posting Judy's bail yet. He didn't much enjoy coming along to dance but sometimes he would copy what the men in the class did, he wasn't so bad at keeping up once he had the counts.

Halie could not help but wish that her little boy had been with her. She could just picture the wonder and excitement on his adorable face once he saw the jungle that had sprouted up overnight in their house.

The sea shell door chime sounded, bringing her back to the present.

"I'll be…" she had started greeting her customer but stuttered to a stop.

'Holy shit…' her confounded mind reeled at what she felt, the invisible force that had smacked her in the guts.

"Holy shit…" She mumbled unable to say anything else at the familiar sensation coursing through her veins. Something electric in the air made it impossible for her to keep the lid closed on everything that she had been determined to contain since that morning.

Forcing herself to turn, holding on to the hope that it was all just in her head, that he wasn't really here.

"No!" she said, vehemently shaking her head when she saw the haughty face of the sandy haired man that had turned her body inside out with a touch.

"Well that's not very nice…" he smirked with an air of arrogance, his blue gaze roaming her body.

Without being able to help it her eyes ran over the incredible well put together man too 'He looks…' Halie shook her head again 'No. No! He looks like a piece of advantage taking crap, Halie!'

He started walking towards her, the way he was looking at her made her feel naked.

"What the hell are you doing here?" she asked stepping towards the back of the shop and away from him, so that a circular rack of dresses now stood between them.

"Resolving unfinished business…"

"What unfinished business?"

"I think you know…"

"I have no clue. I want nothing to do with you." She spat with venom in her voice "I've said everything I could ever have wanted to say to you…"

"That's precisely it. I feel unjustly treated…"

"Unjustly treated?"

"You yell at me call me a rapist and then run off…"

'He left out the kiss…'

He gave her a grin that told her she wasn't getting off the hook that easy "... And you kissed me, I had blue balls all night thanks to you."

"Charming..." she cocked her head to the side staring at him with disgusted scrutiny.

"I think after you accused me of molesting you we moved past pleasantries…" she could see he was a peacocking asshole with the way he spoke and held himself, but despite all of his bluster and show she could somehow tell he had really not known what she had been talking about in the lift.

'How is that I remember and he doesn't?' Her expression soften slightly 'And why does he smell so...' clearing her throat and blinking her head clear 'you can't smell him there are flowers everywhere and a goddamn clothes rack between you...' she reminded herself, swallowing hard as she did.

The way he watched at her like some hungry animal that wanted to devour her was unsettling.

He took a step past the rack, Halie kicked herself for not following the edge of the frame around, instead she had stupidly taken a step back into the open space near the back wall behind her.

"Considering what you did. You have no idea freaking scary it is that you're here. Should I call you a stalker as well?" She spoke having difficulty keeping her voice from shaking, she wasn't entirely sure if it really was just fear or something else.

"I'm Anders. Anders Johnson."

"Good for you."

"You must be Nadine, the owner?" He looked around the shop, a touch of distaste in his stare.

"That's my mum. If you must call me something..." she reluctantly introduced herself after a pause "Mahalia..." His blue eyes fell back to meet her light brown ones. It unnerved her to no end how much they looked like Leif's.

"Mahalia. A pleasure to meet you properly. It might also be helpful for you to know me as Bragi..." he bowed his head a little in what looked to be yet another introduction, he waited as though she was meant know how to respond to that.

Unsure and a little pissed off as his affectedness she asked him honestly "What  
the hell is a Bragi?"

Halie's confusion, seemed to puzzle the man named Anders as well.

Huffing out an exasperated breath he shook his, mumbling so quietly Halie barely heard him "Of course Olaf..."

"Olaf?... Olaf!" Halie stiffened her back, standing taller and more firmly. "You know that guy?"

"He's sort of my cousin..." Anders nod, his eyes distracted as he answered.

"Sort of your cousin?" Halie's fury was tinted with a sliver of fear 'What if he told him about Leif?' the panicked thought briefly flitted through her mind before being replaced with the fact that Olaf had no way of knowing who Leif's father was 'Hell! I didn't even know 'til a night ago.'

Biting her lips, too irate to figure out what words to say, her hard eyes stuck on the smug man before her. Inhaling deeply, gritting her teeth she fumed "You listen to me. You and your family stay the hell away from me and my life. UNDERSTAND?" Halie bit out, somehow she had wound up walking towards him without noticing. Like gravity... the finger she was using to  
berate him was pushed against his chest her nose was practically brushing hers.

Her eyes were burrowing into his amused blue ones. Letting out a shaky breath, Halie's gaze darted down to his mouth, unconsciously she licked her lips 'What's wrong with me?' she hardly had the mind to ask herself before she smashed her mouth against his. She felt the welcome scratch of the scruff on his chin, his fingers dug into her back, scorching her as his demanding lips matched her heat. He groaned into her mouth, she felt herself falling or moving backwards she really couldn't tell... she really didn't care. Gripping his shoulders instinctively to keeping from tripping she realized that he was moving her.

'Slap him, push him away. Just tell him to back the fuck off!' but she couldn't, even in her fogged up mind she knew that cold fact that she had started it.

She could feel the brush of cloth as they tumbled, her back hit what felt like the rough brick of the store's walls. A gasp escaped her, allowing his tongue entrance into her mouth. Halie couldn't speak. She just breathed him in. She needed more of him. Her fingers tangled in his light hair, he moaned pressing hard into her. Halie whimpered, she had to breath it was too much. Tearing her  
mouth from his she gasped for air as his searing lips trailed a path down her neck.

The stubble from his chin as it scraped light against her neck, his tongue swirled flicking at her skin. He made panting grunts as he tasted her, Halie hadn't opened her eyes since she had started kissing him and she didn't want to now... all she wanted was his lips on hers, tugging on his  
hair she brought her hot mouth back to his.

'What was that?' in the recesses of her mind she could a soft sort of chime. Her eyes popped open and her stomach fell out for a reason other than the man sandwiching her against the wall of the changing room that she now saw they were in.

"Mmm!" She pushed his shoulders frantically, forcing him away from her. Catching her breath and licking her kiss swollen lips, Halie looked at the dopey faced man in front of her. He appeared as though he'd been drugged.

'Focus! Leif…' she made herself think straight, she heard the pattering of little footsteps, heading away towards the back room. 'Leif!'

"Stay in here" she breathed harshly at him, darting out of the change room just in time to see Whina open the door of the store. 'Leif will see us by the door... keep them by the door.' She thought firmly to herself, she smiled at her friend her hoping the flush had left her cheeks.

* * *

Anders brain was melting, he was sure of it.

He stared at the dazed reflection of himself in the mirror of the changing room 'Whoa…' he smiled at himself. 'She'll be toast in no time…' he straightened his tie and patted down his ruffled hair rather impressed with his progress. 'Let go and make things difficult for her…'

He reached for the cloth acting as a barrier to the rest of the shop. He wasn't at all prepared for what he was met with when he pulled back the curtain.

Standing there, just standing there staring up at him was a boy with brown hair.

"Uh…" Anders stood frozen, his blue gaze flicked to the door of the shop where Mahalia had her back to him and was talking to a Maori woman.

"Hi?" Anders sort of grimaced, unsure of what say to the random kid, that he guessed belonged to the Maori woman. 'He's pretty light though…'

Anders faced crinkled in puzzlement as the boy made a weird noise and flopped his hands around. 'And a touch odd… how old does a kid have to be to talk? Like six?...' his chin pebbled as he pondered '… seven maybe?'

He looked at the boy again, there was something familiar about him, he couldn't quite place it. He let his mind wander for a moment, before remembering himself 'Fuck this! I'm here for a weird kid…'

He started to move past the boy, toward the blond woman that was his primary interest.

"Leif!"

'Huh?' Anders raised a brow at the sound of Mahalia practically shouting, she hurried over the two males.

The boy started making sound and flipping out with his hands again.

"What's wrong with him?" Anders stepped away from the boy, a look of aversion on his face.

"Nothing, you asshole!" the fury in her light brown eyes as she wrapped her arms defensively around the boy was intense.

'Must be her brother or something…'

She looked as though he had personally offended her.

"Halie…" the Maori woman's surprised voice spoke up from by the door, clearly she was acquainted with the blond nut-job in front of him.

"I think you should leave. I have to close anyway." Both her voice and expression were hard as she glared at him.

"You're not meant to close for another…" stated plainly, her eyes held his in a stalemate.

"I said get out…" she hissed quietly at him. He was sure her friend hadn't heard her but he definitely got the message quite clearly.

"Fine…" he moved a little closer to the blond and the boy "this isn't over…" he whispered his eyes briefly to her lips.

"Oh yes it is…" she all but scoffed.

"We'll see…" His eyes held hers.

"'We' won't be doing anything." She declare, finality in her voice.

He simply responded with a soft frustrated exhale of air through his nose, before turning on his heel and leaving. He gave the gawking friend at the door a curt nod, brushing past her and walking back to his car.

Anders bit his tongue on the ride home. He could still taste her and feel her, it was driving him crazy. 'That did not go at all how I wanted…' Anders puffed out a weary breath, gripping the steering of his car tightly, he sped up trying to get rid of some of the tension. His mind rolled over the events of the afternoon. Olaf might have been wrong, but the way Anders was feeling... 'maybe she just doesn't know…' he clicked his tongue against his teeth 'how could she go through life not knowing though?'

His thoughts shifted to that weird boy for some reason… had he seen him somewhere before? He was so '… weirdly familiar,' Ander gaze lifted to check his rear view mirror for a moment. His vision stayed stuck there though as he took in the mirror image of his eyes. 'Rapist… molester… years ago...' his stomach turned to lead. He was having trouble breathing.

"NO MOTHERFUCKING WAY!" he skidded his car to a halt, it was a miracle he didn't cause an accident. Dangerously making a U-turn he drove like a mad man back to the store, only finding a shop filled with withered flowers and a note pinned to the door saying they had closed early that day.

"Goddamn it!" He pulled at his hair, for all of the times he had felt pathetic as a Norse god or a human, this was by far the worst.

* * *

**Hope it's still seeming ok to people. Sorry about editing.**

**Let me know :)**


	8. Chapter 8: Gonna Be All Right

******Thanks for the support everyone. It's so nice to hear that you're liking it! Sorry about editing and chucky stuff.**

**Chapter Eight – Everything's Gonna Be All Right**

"…And the universe told me that's how I

That's I how I think I know

So you say everything's going to be all right now

And that's how I know…"

– The Babysitters Circus

* * *

Anders had burst into Ty's home, bypassing the two drunken goddesses on the couch and racing passed the kitchen, where Olaf and Ty had been discussing Dawn's strange behaviour and making drinks. They watched him storm into the freezer and slam the door closed. It sounded like he was fighting something, getting something out of his system but when he exited it was clear that time in the freezer hadn't cooled him down any.

"YOU!" he busted out of the ice box and stomped straight towards the kitchen to stare and accusingly point his finger at Olaf. Ty could tell he was fuming and tried to think of what their mellow Grandpa could have done to upset Anders so much.

The dark-haired Johnson watched his brother. It was a sight to see… Anders never really got upset, he sort of just let conflict, disaster, whatever roll off of him but now he looked to be on the verge of exploding and seemed to be struggling with exactly what to say. Eventually he settled on screaming out "WHAT THE FUCK?"

Ty could tell, from what he could see from the side of the bald man's face, that Olaf was staring down at Anders blankly as though he wasn't quite sure that Anders was really there.

"Huh?" Olaf's questioning squint turned for a searching moment to Ty, who simply shrugged.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!" Anders screamed. Ingrid and Stacey's drunken chatter had died down making the silence following the shout all the more heavy.

"Huh?" Olaf asked Anders again slowly.

"ARGH!" Anders exclaimed, dropping his arms.

Ty raised an eyebrow noticing how viciously Anders was scratching his left hip as the proceeded to pace before his very confused family members. Instead of addressing the itching, Ty questioned. "Do you wanna tell us why you're wearing a hole in my floor?"

"Ask Grandpa… " Anders jerked his head towards Olaf, hissing and irritably looking down at where his nails were scraping through his clothes "he know more about it then I do…"

"Wha…" Olaf had stopped abruptly, his mouth forming a circle as reached down into his board shorts, when he lifted his empty hand back up it seemed that he had realized what was up with Anders. "Oh." Olaf looked rather bemused once he was faced with Anders glare.

"'Oh' Grandpa? Really?" he stopped itching to focus on looking at the bald head man with some bitterness "FUCKING 'OH'?" Anders suddenly blew up.

"Hey man I asked you to wait?" Olaf held up his hands and spoke with clam sincerity.

"You never said to wait."

"I know I was a bit toasted, but had to have said something about talking…"

"Talking! TALKING OLAF?" the light-haired god practically screamed.

"Ok Anders. After everything with Eva, how about we don't have the cops showing up here?" Ty piped in, up to that point he had been observing the exchange utterly perplexed by the whole show. "Just tell us what happened… preferably without scaring all the neighbour's away…"

Pursing his lips and exhaling noisily through his nose, Anders blinked a few times. He turned his head to look at Ty, for a second the mortal man thought his brother was going to open up to him but… the light-haired god simply looked back to Olaf "She's not one of us… " something distantly lit in Anders eyes "maybe she is, the flowers were fresh when I got there…" he shook his head.

"Flowers?" Olaf squinted.

"Yes, they were dead when I went back. I realized…" he stopped talking, his eyes widened with meaning as he stared at their grandfather. "Anyway she can't be her, that isn't what she's meant to do… Right?"

"Renewal Anders," Olaf explained, as though it was the most obvious information in the world "renewal is more than Spring… renewal is both death and life… it's the balance..." Olaf stated, using his hands demonstrated a scale.

Anders stood staring at Olaf, he looked like he was caught between anger and something else. "Goddamnit!" he barked, as he started scratching again.

Ty couldn't tell if it was what Olaf had done or if it was the itch that was bugging Anders most in that moment. He had been about to ask his older brother if he had a rash or something, but Anders spoke first.

"You should have told me…" he bit out at Olaf with sense of finality "I have to get out of here." Anders stated, storming out of Ty's house as quickly as he had come in.

"What was that all about?" Ty asked once the echo of the door slamming shut had faded.

"I'd say our little Bragi's found his Idun, eh Olaf?" a drunken Ingrid's giddy voice chimed in from the lounge.

Ty's dark brow furrowed "Idun? With the apples and whatever?"

"Uh huh…" Olaf contemplatively nodded.

Still thoroughly confused, Ty asked his grandfather. "Shouldn't he be feeling like a box of birds then?"

Olaf sighed wearily turning to face Ty. "I'd say it's a bit more complicated than that…"

"Complicated?" Ty asked as he finished making their drinks "How?"

"Because of the boy." Olaf stated distractedly, taking a large gulp of his drink once he'd picked it up off the counter.

"The boy?" Ty frowned squeezing some lime into his own drink.

"From the park…" the older god elaborated when Ty frowned "the deaf boy…"

"Oh." Ty sipped his drink, vaguely remembering the familiar boy "What about him?"

"He's his son…"

A stark thought hit Ty, one which he willfully ignored as tried to think who else Olaf could be referring to "Who's?"

"Anders', Tyrone. Anders' son." Olaf stated bluntly over the sounds of surprised sputtering from the couch.

"Anders' son" Ty repeated with unhidden bafflement as the older man nodded.

"But I'm almost confident it will all be ok…" the bald god stated with a great deal of honesty in his tone.

Ty could not help but gape a bit at Olaf's certainty. Finally, unable to think of what to say or do, Ty just shrugged his shoulders at his grandfather "Well, bugger me."

* * *

"My feet are attached to me Joe!" Halie grumbled.

"Sorry love…" the kindly pot-bellied owner of the studio with his thinning grey hair grimaced at the blond girl.

Immediately Halie felt awful. Things had been bad on the ride to the dance studio, Whina had tried getting Halie to talk… not really accepting the explanation that the guy from the store was 'just some tool' from work, especially since Halie had been so clearly disorientated and terse with her responses and actions.

"Fine!" Whina had exclaimed when Halie had told her to 'drop it!'

By the time they had gotten to the studio, they were hardly interacting with each other. Usually George paired up with Halie and Toby with Whina. It worked out well, they were a cute couple who had started the class around the same time as they and had, were the partners that they had. But Toby had a cold so it was just George there tonight.

Halie had a moment of release, away from her fretful thoughts, when Leif had sweetly asked if he could be her partner. The end result of the relief was that Halie given George up to Whina and had wound up with Joe herself.

Old Joe… at one time he had been a championship dancer and was still an all-around delightful little man, but he was no longer as coordinated as he used to be. The danger getting your feet stomped on was fairly high with him as a partner. As she looked at her aged dance partner she felt increasingly guilty, particularly when over his shoulder where she could see her Leif colouring away at the edge of the dance floor.

Her stomach began churning… everything started swirling in her head.

"Two… Four…" Patsy's count grated at Halie's nerves.

"AGH!" everyone in the relatively small studio, but Leif, stopped turning to look the fraught girl.

"I'm sorr…" Joe started to apologize, though he had not done anything wrong.

"Ah, no Joe. It's not you… It…" Halie bit her lip looking back to her oblivious son. "I just have… I'm just not feeling well." She pulled her body away from the darling little man.

"Are you taking off then?" the older man asked with concern in his watery brown eyes.

"Uh… yeah…" seeing the worry Halie quickly gave him peck on the cheek, hoping to dispel his alarm "I just need a rest…"

Fast as she could Halie walked to Leif, getting his attention by waving her hand before his blue eyes and signing "**We're going.**"

*What about Auntie Whi?* he questioned staring up at her.

"**I said we're going Leif!**" Halie stated before squatting down to roughly shove Leif's colouring things into his backpack.

She impatiently held out her hand for him to take and led him past the practicing dancers to the door, out on to the landing that led down a narrow staircase which let them out into the open, on the quiet lamplit street.

Her head still swimming, Halie felt Leif squeeze her fingers, her light brown gaze fell to her confused son. Her heart melted, she had to focus on him and be sure that he was real.

'He is real the only real thing that matters Halie…' she told herself, stopping in her tracks and kneeling down to look her uncertain son in the eye.

Her hands clenched at his shoulders she took him in smiling as she did, "Come here" she lovingly stated, as clearly as she could. Hugging him tightly, she closed her eyes, his arms wrapped around her neck returning her hug.

The smile fell from her face when she opened her eyes again, she almost gasped at what she saw behind her son … there 'he' was standing right there. With his smug smirk and his unwavering stare, that saw straight through her. Blinking in silent surprise, Halie's eyes cleared, she realized that he was not really on the sidewalk. The long street behind her son was the void of any light-haired pricks.

She didn't know what worse, the rush of fear or the thrill of excitement which had both filled her when she thought he may actually have been there.

'God Halie… God. This is not good…' She inhaled deeply holding Leif more tightly when he tried pulling away. 'This isn't good' she tried blacking that annoyingly skin tingly face out of her mind.

With Leif's arms gripped around her neck, she was comforted by him simply being there. She could think clearer, her light brown gaze lifted to the empty spot where she had seen Ande… 'him' again. Feeling a bit steadier with Leif in her arms Halie reassured herself once again that the man had not been there at all.

Ignoring the tickling just over her the ink on her skin, Halie pulled away from her son. She smiled at her little boy, she could feel her eyes becoming glassy with emotion. Though overwhelmingly she felt joy when she looked at Leif, now she was hit by the worst sort of guilt... thinking about Leif, about John, about her actions threatening the life that they so had carefully made for themselves.

"**I love you so much, Leif. So much.**"

*Me too, **mama*** he replied, she could tell by his expression that her behaviour was upsetting him. The guilt twisted in her gut again.

"Halie?" Whina's soft voice cut into the moment.

Halie turned to see her worried looking friend standing just outside the door of the dance studio.

"You don't have to tell me anything. But..." Halie resisted the urge to bolt, watching as her friend as she struggled with what to say, "It's a few weeks to your birthday and... just tell me it's not happening again..."

"It's not." Halie stated with more confidence than she felt.

"Ok" Whina's dark brown eyes conveyed the sincerity of what she was saying, before she went on with a sigh "Come on then. Let me drive you home."

Her eyes still glossy, Halie smiled weakly at her dear curly haired friend, "Thank you."

Slowly nodding Whina returned the smile, though Halie could tell this whole event would be something her old friend wouldn't forget and that she would have Halie address at some point.

'Not now though…' Halie stood up from where she was kneeling on the pavement.

"Sorry you had to leave early." The blond girl held her son's hand as they began making their way to where the car was parked on the side road by the studio.

"No worries. Reckon George wanted to get back to Toby anyway." Whina shook her head at Halie's apology her chocolate brown curls bouncing as she did.

"Right…" Halie tried desperately not to lose focus on the present.

'What'll I tell John?' she thought before she could catch herself.

Halie unconsciously held Leif's hand a little tighter for assurance.

"Halie." The blond girl became aware of Whina coming to a halt a few steps behind her. Also stopping Halie pivoted with Leif to face her friend.

"Yeah?"

"I know you don't wanna talk about it. But…" Halie felt her heart tighten again as she waited for Whina to go on for a second time "… I want you to know. It'll be all right…" Whina gave her a small warm smile, reaching out to supportively grip Halie's shoulder.

Halie couldn't bring herself to look at Whina, instead she stared down at her feet. After a moment she spoke, barely above a whisper. "How do you know?"

"I just do." Halie lifted her gaze to seeing her grinning friend "And even if I didn't, Tom, your mum, John are all here for you …" she started walking towards to car again, wrapping an arm around Halie's shoulders as she did.

'John…' Halie thought, remorse filling her.

"And I'm never ever going anywhere" Whina nudged her hip against Halie's drawing the blond girl back to the conversation, carrying on with a chuckle in her speech "I'm here for you and Leif, Halie. Always."

"I know…" Halie smiled genuinely, looking at Whina and feeling much lighter than she had seconds ago. Wrapping her arm around Whina's waist Halie returned her side hug as they walked. "Me too."

"Sweet as."

They dropped their arms as they approached Whina's red jeep, as Halie helped Leif into Rangi's booster seat she filled him in on the need to know of what Whina and she had been talking about "Leif says he'll be there too Whi" Halie grinned at her son, ruffing up his light brown hair, before shutting the back seat door.

"Aw, that's sweet darling" Whina looked over her shoulder from her place at the driver's seat "**Thank you, love.**" She signed, albeit a bit crudely.

Once Halie had taken her seat and they had started driving in silence, down the nighttime streets she let the events of this strange day wash over her. So much didn't make sense, she had a hard time wrapping her mind around how she even felt about everything. Halie wasn't even sure if she could begin to explain it to someone else… let alone if she could even do it for herself.

There had been something that had confused her as she watched the passing Mount Albert landscape outside the car window, it was something she was sure wouldn't stir up too much trouble.

Thoughtfully Halie turned her eyes away from the scenery to ask her friend. "You wouldn't happen to what a Braegi is, would you?"

"A Braegi?" Whina's face crinkled in question.

"Yeah."

"Haven't the foggiest idea. Why?" Whina asked, keeping her eyes on the road.

"Just wondering, heard it somewhere…" Halie tried to remember exactly what he had said "Braegi or Bregi or Bragi or something…"

"Oh…" Whina frowned still looking stumped as she mulled it over "Could it be like 'Bray' like a horse or something…?"

"Dunno…" Halie shrugged.

"That last one sounded like 'Brag' though… Like a bragger, maybe?" Whina suggested, as she checked an intersection before turning left.

"That'd be right." Halie muttered under her breath, her brown light eyes moving back to the passing houses outside. Pretending to herself that she hadn't just seen him again… leaning against a lamppost by the intersection, blue gaze coolly watching her pass by as she resisted the urge to scratch the itch growing at the skin of her marked up side.

* * *

**Whoa! Pretty proud! **

**You guys are reading my mind or maybe I'm just the obvious.**

**In a strange writing mood…**

**Anywho, love hearing from you!**


	9. Chapter 9: Help Me

**Hey! Hope your all doing all right. Sorry about editing. On we go. **

**Chapter Nine – Help Me**

"… Just your presence and I second guess my sanity

Yes it's a lesson, it's unfair, you stole my vanity

My tummy's up in knots so when I see you I get so hot

My common sense is out the door, can't seem to find the lock …"

– Rihanna

* * *

"And that's all looking good, we should be breaking ground within the week" Mr. Gunn rubbed his hands together, smiling in that way that made Halie uncomfortable. He always seemed to have something 'not quite right' going on behind his amused grey eyes.

It really didn't help that she had seen 'him'. That light haired weirdo there standing in the place of Mr. Gunn. The hallucination had been so real, naturally she had missed most of what the CEO of her company had said, which only added to her uneasiness.

'Maybe he didn't notice' Halie thought herself, she tried to shake the feeling that though they were in a full board room Mr. Gunn was solely staring at her 'You were practically drooling Halie' the acerbic voice in her head spoke.

After that man had appeared at the shop Halie had been anxiously waiting for him to arrive on their doorstep. But he hadn't. She guessed that for a normal person that would have been a relief but Halie it was not. All at once he would materialize before her eyes making her stop in her tracks, making her panic, making her drool and it would take a breathless moment for her to realize that he wasn't really there.

'A stupid moment of looking like an idiot…'

Halie's nervous light brown eyes floated around the room, none of people getting up from around the table had seemed to have notice her gaping. Sticking to her seat at Mr. Henson side Halie was filled with some dread, as they stayed for an extra word with Mr. Gunn. It was strange for Halie. She had been involved in designing and pitching ideas at other internships but she had never taken part in the ground breaking of such large design and was interested in seeing what problems arose during the actual building process. It should have been exciting.

'It should be.' Halie grumbled to herself, still trying to grapple with her shaky demeanour and weakened limbs.

Mr. Gunn smiled widely, his gaze on the pair across the boardroom table. "Well then!" He looked down to his wrist watch before turning his head to the door quickly. "Might as well start…"

"If you're sure." Mr. Henson stated.

"I am." Mr. Gunn replied shortly "So, it'll be your mug, mine, the Fenrir CEO and about forty different news outlets…"

"Forty?" Henson asked.

"Small ones, though we really want the big ones…" Mr. Gunn moved his suggestive grey eyes to Halie, who shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She tired her damnedest to ignore the light haired hallucination silently mimicking and mocking everything Mr. Gunn was saying.

"Am I right?" Mr. Gunn asked Halie.

"Ahh…" Halie tried to focus on Gunn and not the figment of her imagination standing next to him.

"Are you all right. You're looking a bit ill?" Mr. Henson asked, his hand touching Halie's shoulder in worry.

"Ah. Yes I'm fine." She smiled lamely at her mentor "It's this morning I… my son just said something funny."

"And naturally that made you look ill." She looked up at Mr. Gunn who was frowning, though he didn't really sound concerned.

"Ah. Well, you" she turned again to face Mr. Henson's questioning expression "…you sort of had to be there."

'It's getting worse.' Halie felt herself cringe. For a while she thought maybe she could loosen up with John, but their bed had remained as cold as it had been for so many months. The one night they had actually wrestled up time and energy to have a root had only made Halie feel all the more guilty, it so clearly, utterly, completely wrong…

"Of course." Gunn smiled as though he were remembering something "you're a mother." His slimy grey eyes seemed to assess her "Speaking of mothers" he spoke, abruptly changing the subject, looking between Mr. Henson and Halie "My mother wants to speak with you." His gaze stopped on Halie again.

"Me?" Halie frowned.

'Why?' she figured that the kind, but busy woman would have had more important things to do then bring up her to Mr. Gunn. 'Since when?'

"It is you I'm looking at, isn't it?" He smiled though his words were sharp.

"Yes. O-" she swallowed her questions, "Of course."

There was a silence that hung, Halie had the sense Mr. Gunn was expecting something.

"Now." The CEO opened his eyes wider, suggesting that Halie had better get a move on.

"Now?" Looking at Mr. Henson for some support, Halie asked "But don't you…"

"That's fine Halie, I'll catch you up later." Henson nodded his head in reassurance.

"If you're sure." She felt so confused, this was all rather weird.

"No worries, I'll see you later" the older man nodded, though something in the formality of his tone, told her he was simply agreeing because Gunn was the boss.

"Ok." She started collecting her pad of paper and pen.

"I can bring you things back." Henson offered.

"Oh, all right…" she lifted her uncertain gaze to Mr. Gunn. "Unless I'll be needing them?"

"No, I doubt you'll have a need to scribble down anything." Gunn stated, Halie nodded and began walking towards the glass door of the conference room.

"Umm." She stopped halfway out the door, pivoting to face Mr. Gunn.

"Take the lift back up to the 29th floor, opposite the direction you go to get my office, same spot though…" he seemed to have anticipated Halie's question.

"Thank you."

Halie resisted the urge to shiver. She had felt an invisible hand familiarly press against her stomach and warm intoxicating breath whisper in her ear as soon as she walked out the door.

'Fucking crap…'

* * *

Adriane Gunn's office on the 29th floor was an odd mix of professional and familial love. It was elegant and smooth in the construction and in the office equipment, but the furnishings and spaces for art were filled with Halie could only see as her attempt to fill the place with a hominess and pride for her sons.

'Sons…' Halie had thought her light brown eyes roaming the many pictures on Mrs. Gunn's office bookshelves. Like Fenrir, Halie had done her research about her new employer as well. Adriane Gunn had two sons and had been left to raise them when Liam was fourteen. The odd thing though was that there was no information about the children's father, the shroud of mystery around the very public family added to the impressive status they held in Auckland. So did the tragedy…

"They went fishing that day… Liam was so helpful, but David still didn't catch a thing." Mrs. Gunn gave context for what Halie was looking at.

She couldn't help but admire the older woman as she beamed and described the occasion that Halie had been staring at. They did look so happy, in the silver picture frame, two boys waded out in water, dressed in fishing gear, one pointing out to the distance, the other throwing back his line about to cast. They almost looked like twins, but Liam was older.

'Had been older…' Halie still had no clue how this woman had done it, 'if Leif ever…' Halie couldn't even think about it, she knew she'd go mad if anything ever happened to her son.

"So," Halie felt Mrs. Gunn's gentle hand on her back, she let the older woman guide her to one of the four comfy longue chairs in the middle of her office. From where she sat Halie could see the Viaduct in the distance, though she could see grey clouds on the horizon it was still a great view, different to the other side of the building where she normally was.

'Wow.'

"Would you like something to drink?" Mrs. Gunn offered, still standing.

"I'm fine, thank you."

"Are you sure, I'm making myself something."

"I suppose some water would be nice, but I can…" she started to get up.

"No, no, no" Mrs. Gunn shook her silver-haired head, directing Halie to sit down again. "Don't you dare… you just sit and relax. You look so tense." She said with a small laugh, before walking to a small bar just behind Halie's chair. "I swear you're not in any trouble."

'That's debatable…' she tried pushing the fuzzy thoughts of her past, that were constantly working their way through her mind, out of her head. She focused instead on the skyline before her.

"So..."

"So…" they began speaking at the same time, over the clinking of glasses.

"I'm sorry. You go head." Halie stated, turning in her seat to look up at the older woman who had her back to the blond girl.

"No you go on, dear" Mrs. Gunn insisted not turning.

"Mine was nothing, just about the wonderful view."

Mrs. Gunn turned around with a glass of water and another glass a quarter with dark liquid, her kind eyes moved to the window "Yes it is rather nice isn't it?" she smiled warmly, handing Halie her glass of water and taking her seat across the yellow haired girl. "I was going to ask if your knee was any better" she glance at Halie's pant covered leg that had been injured over a week ago.

"It is" Halie nodded awkwardly, unsure of what to do with herself she took a sip of her water.

"That's good. And work, how is that for you?"

"It's great. I really enjoy it here."

"Your son? Leif?"

Halie's "Ho- how did you…"

"My dear, it's not exactly a national secret, and when Noel said a family emergency had been the reason for you missing the party I simply asked."

"Right…" Halie began to fret about missing the event "About that…"

"Don't worry, family comes first."

"Right, but…"

"Don't worry. Is your son well?" The older woman brushed off Halie's apologetic manner, and pressed on.

"Yes, he is."

"Five, correct?"

Halie nodded, "Just started kindie."

"I love that age…" Mrs. Gunn spoke wistfully, "Before you know it…" she cut herself off, taking a sip of her drink clearly thinking of her boys.

Halie felt impossibly more awkward, she didn't know what to say other than "I'm sorry…"

The older woman shook her head "Don't be silly. Now! You must tell me about how you're fitting in here, what do think of everything?"

"I…" Halie started, her brow raised in hesitation as she eyed the sweet accomplished lady "I hope you don't mind my asking, but why…"

"Well, I have such a small circle of friends and hardly have a chance to talk to a working woman who isn't afraid of me."

The blond girl filled with more doubt "Afraid of you?"

"Or intimidated by my son…"

"To be fair I am intimidated by your son…" Halie admitted.

"And see! You're honest about it. Now tell me, I want know how you're feeling."

Seeing no cause not to, Halie shrugged and told Mrs. Gunn what she wanted to know "So for I'm enjoying it, the Fenrir company is really interesting, their prosperity in such a relatively short amount of time is incredible. I really did want to meet Agnetha Idra… it would be interesting to know why she chose the name…"

"The name?"

"Yes." Halie tried to control the geeky side of herself, but even under the pressure of Mrs. Gunn's kindly gaze she rambled "Besides being a character from Harry Potter. Fenrir's apparently this Norse wolf-beast creature that's the son of Loki…"

"Loki?"

"Yeah, but the weird thing is Nari Group is also related in that way. I just thought Nari was for a 'storm' or 'night' or something, it the Norse thing didn't occur to me until I researched Fenrir…" Halie spewed out, feeling more and more silly but unable to stop herself.

As she looked at Mrs. Gunn, Halie realized she must have said too much, the older woman looked as though she'd eaten something rotten. But it only lasted for a split second, the next thing Halie knew the gentle lady had returned to her previous state of coolness.

Something in the space of quiet that followed changed. Halie looked away from the patient stare of Mrs. Gunn, her eyes drifting down to the glass of water clasped in her hand.

Biting her lip she wondered if she should.

"I don't know how I've been feeling lately though…" Halie winced as she spoke.

She still wasn't sure if it was because she want to tell, or if it was the silence or because Mrs. Gunn was outside of her daily family life. 'What are you doing?' Halie asked herself.

"You mean outside of work?"

"I mean… I've been" she lifted her gaze to face Mrs. Gunn, who gave her a sense of somehow already knowing how she felt. "… off kilter…" Halie finished.

"I was thrown off kilter once too." The silver-haired woman nodded, everything about her expression seemed to show that she understood Halie situation exactly.

"Really?"

"Really…" Mrs. Gunn took a finally drink from her glass.

Halie asked the question that she had desperately been asking herself for the past week "How long before you were…"

"Back to normal?"

Halie nodded silently.

"Any day now" the older smiled through her sarcasm, scoffing before she stood up taking Halie's glass with her to make herself another drink.

Halie looked down to her lap, at her empty hands.*Any day now* she signed as she felt familiar nose nuzzle invisibly against her neck.

* * *

"Anders?" He ignored the pissy voice calling him.

"Anders" another sweet voice mumbled against his shoulder.

'Better' he thought to himself.

"ANDERS!"

He startled, nearly falling back out of his seat. "WHAT THE HELL DAWN?"

"Sorry for waking you, your majesty. But you have a meeting to get, at… oh about" she pretended to check her wrist watch "five minutes ago…"

"Right" Anders ran his hand through his lengthening hair. Hadn't really gotten around to cutting it yet, or shaving or sleeping at all really. 'Hence the nap… naps…' he wearily corrected himself.

For the first few days he had tried the good ol' 'fuck her outta your system' routine. But that had worked about as well as the first night she had waltzed into his life.

'Waltzed in again' he shook his head, rubbing the dark circles around his eyes 'AGAIN… Gotta remember the kid…' Anders physically shuddered as he recalled the boy's face.

"Fuck…" he mumbled under his breath, blue eyes still covered, in part due his hangover. Mike had taken some time off of his Colin 'the hidden camera twat' vendetta to try to speak with Anders, which had gone as fantastically as all of the other brotherly chats they'd ever had.

All about responsibility and meetings and things Anders didn't want to think about. He'd buried himself in women, and when that hadn't worked he gave alcohol a try, which didn't really work either but at least it was good at keeping things numb for a while. This sleeping thing was starting to get on Anders nerves though.

He couldn't get through the whole night for some reason, he'd wake up his heart pounding, the long forgotten mark on his waist itching and all over filled with the feeling that he had lost something important in his mind.

Most days and nights he wound up asleep on the couch in his office. Today he had napping in the chair at his desk, but he still hadn't been to his apartment since the day before yesterday.

"Here" he heard the sound of something thwacking on to his desk.

Fanning out his fingers to peek out he saw Dawn had brought him a fresh suit. "For me?"

"No. For Father Christmas." Dawn huffed.

"You knew I'd be late?"

"No…" with a sigh she explained "you added picking up your laundry on my lunch break to my job description which is why I was late back. You were meant to go home and get change remember?"

"Right, right" Anders nodded, removing his hands from his scruffy face, vaguely recalling the conversation.

"Oh whoa." Anders frowned at Dawn's gawking, looking down at himself he saw nothing wrong other than the fact he was wearing a wrinkled grey suit.

"What?"

"You just… being mad at you is difficult right now. You look awful."

"That's great Dawn."

"No. I really mean it Anders you're not sick or anything?"

"If I was sick you'd be the first to know." He smirked, that one she really hated, as convincingly as he could "Who else would fit the Nurse's costume?"

"Argh!" She groaned, clearly no longer concerned with ignoring her anger at him "Fine, just get changed and go."

"You know you're cute when…" he trailed off, his smile slipping from his face.

She was there, in the middle of the room. Tempting him, torturing him… blond and light eyed, warm and smelling so much like… 'Shit. Shit. Shit.' Anders shook his head, he felt himself stir below the belt.

"Lost your condescending train of thought?" Dawn's bored voice cut through his illusion.

"Ah…" Anders mouth was dry, as his vision cleared "I'll just go change."

"Sounds like a brilliant plan boss." Dawn commented with some bitterness.

* * *

'It's not that bad, it's not that bad' Anders repeated to himself.

Even with the new suit he was relatively unkempt, but hopefully once he made use of Bragi that wouldn't be an issue. His power had grown stronger, giving him a taste of what life would be like once Axl's spotty girlfriend turned 21 in three days.

"Hey Johnson!" Anders heard the grating sound of his client's voice before he saw him.

Smiling through the wave of tiredness that had hit him once he walked into the practically empty conference room, Anders held out his hand in greeting to Liam Gunn.

'Time to work the magic.' He thought taking note of the familiar older man in the room.

"Sorry I'm late." Anders focus his eyes on those of the men in the room, lowering his voice as he spoke, once he saw that hypnotised look that usually meant his powers were working Anders continued "Hit a bit of a tough spot at the office… all sort now, but I appreciate both of you understanding."

Both men nodded lazily, looking up at Liam, Anders went on with a smile "Now. I know you won't mind I have no clue what you want for you opening, let's just say you're comfortable and you'll see me at the ground breaking. Ok?"

Anders grinned, as the head of the Nari group nodded dumbly along with his other elder business associate.

'So much for dumb blonds…' Anders beamed at a job well done, feeling triumphant even over the woman that had on his mind.

"Now you're going to tell me how wonderful that plan is and thank me for hauling ass all the way down here."

"Thank you for hauling ass." Gunn repeated robotically, his dark eyes dazed.

Anders shook the large man's again "You're welcome." He nodded at the other older man before turning to leave "See you later than." Anders spoke over his shoulder as the door closed behind him.

Leaving the conference room feeling satisfied with himself, he looked down at his down shoes with a grin as he walked. Gunn wasn't a genius, but he was powerful, the fact that Bragi had worked was still pretty damn awesome.

Suddenly some force grabbed him and pulled him into a dark room. Judging by the clashing sound Anders guessed he had been shoved back against some filing cabinets in what had to be a closet.

Before the bare swing light bulb even flicked on the sandy haired god had begun speaking with a smirk "We have to stop meeting like this…"

* * *

**Hope you're liking it. Let me know what you think of the story and the season so far :)**


	10. Chapter 10: Do I Wanna Know?

**Hey! Sorry it's been so long. Hope you're all doing well. Am wayyy behind on watching, if everything goes to plan I'll be able to catch up in a few days. **

**Chapter Ten – Do I Wanna Know?**

"... Have you no idea that you're in deep?

I've dreamt about you nearly every night this week

How many secrets can you keep?

'Cause there's this tune I found

That makes me think of you somehow

And I play it on repeat

Until I fall asleep..."

– Arctic Monkeys

* * *

_"We have to stop meeting like this…"_

Anders' back hurt. It wasn't so much that he knew who it was as he knew who it wasn't, as his blue eyes struggled to recall the familiar face before him. "Lydia?" he asked fairly certain of his guess. He was pretty sure that he had slept with her at least twice in the span of the week after the event, both times she had been just as… enthusiastic about it. "Right?"

He wasn't concerned about offending her, the black haired woman didn't seem to mind either, as she attacked him... well attacked his face really.

As long as she carried on down this road Anders didn't care what the hell her name was. He could ignore the pain at his back, the itch on hip and the fact that he was dead tired. Maybe the distraction would work this time, it couldn't hurt to go with it, from what he could remember since the last time she wasn't that bad in bed.

She aggressively pushed his head back so it smacked with loud thud against the file cabinets behind him "Ah!"

Anders turned his head away to avoid her unrelenting mouth. 'Well that hurt' he thought sourly to himself.

"You don't have to chew the damn thing off..." he said in irritation to the woman, who was now nibbling on his ear with a little more force than was probably necessary.

Before he could turn his face back to meet hers the room flooded with what had to be light from the hall outside. The door had suddenly opened to show an obviously surprised blonde woman, but he didn't have to look to see who it was. He could feel that buzz in his head, his body was already responding to her presence alone.

"You." she mumbled after an inadvertently dramatic pause.

Anders scrutinized her, "You." He parroted her mockingly.

"Huh?" The black haired woman questioned. "You know that girl?" she scowled at Anders, when he looked at her.

"Barely" he muttered, finding it grating to have to explain this to the woman standing in front of him. Especially when he scarcely wanted to explain it to himself. Anders was vaguely aware of the blonde woman crossing her arms over her chest out of the corner of his eye. Staring directly into Lydia's quickly stupefied gawk, he spoke quietly "How about you get out here?".

She nodded, immediately drawing away from Anders' body and walking by the frowning woman in the doorway without a word.

Anders straightened up his clothes, righting his tie taking in his woman's silhouette 'my woman' he shook his head at himself 'I'll be sopping off with Axl next...'

"That how talk to everyone or just women?" She nodded in the direction the dark haired lady had gone, obviously unimpressed by his behaviour.

"I'd like to think that I treat people equally," he smiled to himself, pleased with the annoyance that flitted across her face. She remained silent, as though she was considering something, her brown eyes were fixed on him, she took in a breath before stepping into room and letting door shut behind her.

"We have to talk..." she stated plainly her arms still over her chest, in the shady light of the single bare bulb above them. She was trying to appear calm but Anders could see the nervousness in her eyes, in the way her jaw clenched.

"I agree" he allowed. He wasn't a fan of talking with anyone, more than anything preferring to talk at people. Some part of him had absolutely no desire to hear what she might say. He wasn't ready for the weight of that.

The other overwhelming part of him wanted her stay, that same part of him that wanted to him to wrap his arms around her and breathe her in forever.

"Are you stalking me?" she burst out suddenly.

He adjusted forcing himself away from his transfixion on her, quirking an eyebrow in amusement, "By all means, you go first…" he sarcastically invited her to speak, bowing his head a little.

Anders saw that spark of anger in her expression, she took a step towards him but kept her composure.

"Well are you?" she asked again with a hard edge to her voice.

Thinking of the other times they'd been in the room, he noted to himself 'Looks like she's gotten a handle on her urges...' his blue gaze skimmed appreciatively over her features.

"No" he spoke his voice softer than even he had expected it be. Clearing his throat he tore his eyes away from her, shoving his hands in the pockets of his slacks. "If I had been looking, I would've found you by now, this" he pointed at the heavy space between their bodies "...is just coincidence... I work in P. R. for the Fenrir group..."

"Fenrir" her repeated reply drew his attention back down from the dark corners of the small room.

She had blanched a little, it dawned on him why "Let me guess... you're working on a project for them here?"

"Interning on one."

"Interning?" it was his turn to repeat with a frown, "How old are you?" he winced in preparation for the answer.

She questioned him with some disdain, "Why?"

He looked her over she had to be in her twenties, he tried to work out how the kid would have figured into her age. " 'Cause I'd really like not to be a pedophile... I can't go to prison, not with that charge on my rep and my face... " though he had said it with a bit of humour, Anders could help but feel his skin crawl at the thought of being someone who had committed such an act.

"Well, I can change your face for you if you like" she bit out harshly, alluding to something that would probably be unpleasant and painful.

"That's not very nice. I've been nothing but civil with you..."

"Except for the stalking and the... the..." she struggled to find the right word, he could feel her glare almost burning him "... being a creep."

"No need for name calling, love. I just asked a question... I answered yours now I think it's only fair that you answer mine." He gave her his most charming smirk.

Her lips pursed, Anders' was positive that she was grinding her teeth while she considered what to do next. "23."

Anders' blinked for a moment his hand automatically going to his left hip "So that would have made you... 18?" he said more to himself than her.

"Yea... How did you... You remembered?" she asked her surprise evident as she strained to settle on the right question to ask him, he could detect a vein of fear underlying her tone of voice.

"Not exactly..."

"Then how..."

"Well, there's this" he un-tucked the shirt he was wearing to show the mysterious tattoo that he had gotten around the time he suspected they had met.

The expression on her face went from confusion to curiosity, she leaned over and moved closer. The way she was examine the dark mark on his skin, made the light haired God think that she had seen the foreign characters before.

'Weird fucking Norse shit.' Since seeing the ancient scribbles that Colin had written his hell spawn's marriage contract in, Anders' had guessed the markings had something to do with the same language. However, Agnetha had been sent off to her branched and burned state before Anders had an opportunity to ask her about the etchings 'God damn trees...'

His attention came back to the girl bent down, her breath close enough to tickle his skin, her fingers lifted as though she was about to touch him and her mouth dangerously near his crouch. If she hadn't been his literal match he might have been able to restrain himself... but without thinking he found his fingers gently stroking a few soft stands of her blonde hair 'smells sweet even from here...'

Almost immediately she recoiled back, as if he had stung her.

Anders shook off the unusual behaviour that he was displaying, dropping the edge of his shirt back down and finding his acerbic mouth again.

"And the fact that you have a fucking kid around that age." He offered with a tone of victory.

Her eyes widened, she looked stunned like a deer in headlight "I don't know what you're..."

"Don't try to bullshit someone that's better at it than you and pretty much everyone else... " he interrupted her, feeling triumphant as she stared at him her mouth hanging open.

"Olaf?" she questioned her voice scratchy as she asked how he knew.

"He knew... but give me some credit, I'm not that thick." Anders rolled his blue eyes.

"You can't have him!" she exclaimed abruptly.

"Did you hear me ask?"

She seemed to be unhearing in her panic she rambled on "He has John, he doesn't need anyone else. He has me."

Puffing out some air, Ander spoke under his breath "Jesus, are you always this much of a nutter?"

"Just stay away from me and my family..." she hissed between her teeth.

"Hey!" he held up his hands innocently "I wasn't looking for you this time."

"You don't..." she appeared to be working something out, her brow furrowed "you won't..." she took a deep breath and swallowed. Her gaze lifted to stare at him for a moment.

Something he couldn't quite place was occurring in the pause. Not just for her but for him too. He took her in, not only her physical features or scent, but the emotions that were playing across her whole being, he saw how the fear in her eyes looked, how the corner of her mouth tightened when she realized something she clearly found unpleasant, how her brow would relax and her shoulders would unwind when her nerves had calmed some.

Even more than that, he was soaking in the words that they had just exchanged and one thing in particular stuck out to him "Who the fuck is John?"

The tension returned to her body, this time he saw her nose twitch in anger. "It's none of your business, but he's my boyfriend, he's been there through everything..."

"Even through the early years of my son's life? Good man" Anders' cruelly remarked, cutting in.

"He is not your son. He is mine. And John has been there, he stuck by me through..." her mouth snapped closed and her eyes were hard. He could tell that whatever 'it' was, that this John person had been through with her, was rough for her to address out loud.

"Yes?" Anders' nodded, urging for her to continue.

"Through you..." she finished tightly, Anders' could fill in what she meant by the sheer weight of her tone.

'Me…' his thought of her 18 years old, thinking she'd been violated… He could almost feel it. He didn't like it. Anders didn't care about people. 'I don't care.' He resolved, with a grit of his teeth, watching the blonde woman speak.

"... but that isn't the point." Halie went on "The point is that he's been brought up by him. Leif loves him. You get it?"

'Leif...' that word seemed to thump right into Anders' chest, the boy's face flashed into his mind, leaving him slightly dumbstruck as Halie waited expectantly for Anders to acknowledge what she had just said.

"Right, yeah... It's not the point. 'Stay away.' I get it..." his Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed thickly, scrubbing a pensive hand over the scruff on his chin, his mind elsewhere.

"Good..." she said slowly, eying him with apparent distrust. "I- I'll be going then." She added uncertainly, as though she had wanted say something more.

He nodded watching as she turned, his eyes traveling to how she moved, where her body would tense and when.

Once the door shut, Anders simply stared blankly at it. The air around him felt heavy, his head was filled with a buzzing sound… it hadn't escaped Anders' notice that he had not shuddered as he had so many times before. Now, he wasn't sure what was churning in his gut but it sure as shit didn't feel good.

* * *

**Sorry about editing again. Gonna catch up on episodes soon.**

**Hope everyone's doing well. **

**Let me know what you think! (of the story and the show)**


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